Murder in Tata Blocks

Resident of Bandra’s Tata Blocks, 78-year-old Darius Kapadia, retired principal secretary to a former Bombay High Court judge, was allegedly killed by Jay Navrang, 21, and his friend Kamlesh Jadhav, 20, on the night of March 7, 2015. Hindustan Times (HT) reported on March 9, 2015 that the duo went to Kapadia’s house at 9 p.m. carrying bottles of vodka. Navrang’s father was known to and trusted by the Kapadias, though he, who had been in their employ earlier as a sweeper, had been sacked for some misdemeanor. According to HT, the police said, "After he (Kapadia) was intoxicated, they slit both his wrists. When he did not die, they slit his throat too.”
Kapadia’s wife Lily, 74, who used to visit their daughter daily, returned shortly after midnight. When she knocked on the door there was no response so she let herself in with a spare key. She requested the autorickshaw driver she had engaged to help carry her bags in, according to The Times of India (TOI) of March 9 and also asked him to see where her husband was. The man peeped in and responded that the husband was lying down, a police officer told the newspaper. After the auto driver left, Lily went to check on her husband and was shocked to find that his throat had been slit.
According to The Indian Express of March 10, 2015, police officers investigating the case said that the two men knew that Kapadia’s wife had kept a large sum in cash in their locker. The unemployed young men planned to start a business with the cash stolen from the couple. They reportedly knew that Lily, a former supervisor at Tata Consultancy Services, had been carrying the key to the locker and they were waiting for her to get back home.
The accused, who had been hiding in the kitchen, pounced on Lily and tied her to a chair with a dupatta before blindfolding her, a police source informed TOI. They then demanded the keys and Lily asked them to look under the bed. They reportedly hit her when the keys were not there and she admitted they were in her bag. The accused made off with Rs 7.5 lakhs in cash, two tolas of gold and a cell phone, police sources revealed. Lily freed herself and sought help from her neighbors who called the police.
Though the accused were apprehended within 12 hours of committing the crime, there is fear in the colony regarding lack of adequate security. Many of the residents are elderly and live alone. A resident told TOI: "Most Parsi colonies across the city have started installing closed circuit television cameras; our colony hasn’t done so. Footage from them can provide vital clues if a crime occurs.”