Mumbai: Four days after a 45-year-old housewife was robbed and murdered at her suburban Borivali residence, the city police claimed to have cracked the case today, after the arrest of a 29-year-old unemployed man, who was a friend of the victim's teenaged daughter.  

Rajendra Karanjekar, a friend of the deceased's daughter, was grilled for several hours after which he confessed to killing the woman and robbing her valuables, Deputy Police Commissioner Balsingh Rajput said.  Karanjekar was arrested late last night, the police said, adding that the unemployed man had incurred debts, which prompted him to plot the robbery, though he also ended up murdering the woman.

The victim, identified as Seema Patade, was alone at her residence in Krishna Classic high-rise building when Karanjekar smothered her to death last Friday evening, the police said.

Patade's daughter Manasi (17) found her dead after she returned from college. The victim's husband was out of station on the day of the incident.

“Since there was no forced entry into the house, we suspected it was a handiwork of a person, who was known to the victim,” Rajput said.

Narrowing down the list of suspects, Karanjekar was brought in for questioning.

“Initially he denied his role in the crime outright.  However, technical and circumstantial evidences nailed his lies,” the DCP said.

Earlier, the culprit had visited Patade's house with Manasi, the police said.

On the day of incident, the accused reached the house when Seema was alone. While Seema went to another room, Karanjekar sneaked into her bedroom and searched for her ornaments in a cupboard when the victim confronted him and tried to stop him from stealing her valuables.  Scared of being held by the police, he overpowered her and smothered her to death with a pillow and fled the house with the valuables which are being recovered, the police said.