Forty-four-year-old Bunty, arrested on Wednesday for murdering a Delhi Jal Board assistant engineer at a flat in Rohini’s Begumpur and fleeing with cash and jewellery, spent over 10 hours with the body as he got locked out and could not escape.Police said on Thursday that as Bunty and Suresh Rathi (59) wrestled and tumbled towards the bathroom, the accused managed to land a fatal blow to Rathi’s jugular with a knife. With Rathi bleeding out on the floor, Bunty gathered the jewellery and cash and tried to flee, only to find the door centrally locked.“Bunty had to spend over 10 hours with Rathi’s body… he struggled to find the key to make his escape. Around 8 am on November 1, Bunty managed to unlock the door and flee,” an officer said.Police also said that it is likely that only around 10 days before the murder, the two bumped into each other at a paan shop near Rathi’s house and started a friendship. Further, the CCTV camera footage has revealed that Bunty met Rathi near the flat on October 25 and 27 as well.Rathi was found dead in a pool of blood inside his locked house by his son on November 2. While he lived in Rohini’s Sector 24, Rathi would occasionally visit the flat in Begumpur and stay there. The family initially did not think anything was amiss, but when Rathi stopped responding to phone calls, his son decided to check on him. Upon unlocking the flat’s door, the son found Rathi lying in a pool of blood near the bathroom’s doorway, said police.The CCTV camera footage showed Rathi entering the flat with a man in a black hoodie on October 31. However, the man wouldn’t exit the flat until the next morning. Rathi’s son would make the PCR call the following day.Officer said that almost immediately, they suspected the man entering Rathi’s house on October 31. “We checked CCTV footage and found that the man had met the victim on October 25 and 27 as well. We got his scooter’s (license plate) number from the CCTV footage and traced him to Aman Vihar. We pulled up dossiers of some criminals in the area and matched the same to the suspect,” Joint Commissioner of Police (Northern Range) Vijay Singh said on Thursday.Story continues below this adPolice discovered that Bunty had been arrested in six cases for gambling, theft and possessing illegal arms.Several teams, comprising around 200 police personnel, were tasked to track Bunty. “He used to keep switching his phone on and off,” said Singh. On November 1, Bunty was seen travelling to Kashmere Gate, the next day his phone showed he was in Vikaspuri and Aman Vihar. On November 3, Bunty switched on his phone once near the banquet halls at Peeragarhi and the next day at Madhuban Chowk. On November 5, he was seen roaming around Rohini, Wazirpur and Vikaspuri.Police said they knew that the suspect was frequenting his home in Aman Vihar and was hiding in Vikaspuri. “When we spoke to his family members, they said he had asked whether the police had come to the house,” said Singh.Bunty was ultimately arrested on Wednesday from his partner’s house in Vikaspuri, where police recovered the jewellery and cash he had stolen from Rathi’s flat.Story continues below this adPolice said that Rathi’s family and neighbours had maintained that he was gregarious, outgoing and friendly. “He would take rounds of his neighbourhood and chatted with people at the paan shop. Bunty’s gym was also close by. We believe that the two met at the paan shop eight to 10 days before the murder,” the officer said.After meeting Bunty on October 25 and 27 near the flat, police said, Rathi invited him upstairs for drinks on October 31. “By this time, Bunty had noticed the gold rings and chains Rathi would wear… his family said he loved gold and loved to wear it,” said the Joint CP.Police said Bunty is unlikely to have visited Rathi with a plan to rob and murder him. As the two sat and downed drinks, Bunty may have seen the opportunity to overpower Rathi and rob him, said officers.“The two struggled a lot… I think Bunty did not expect that Rathi would put up a fight. Maybe he had hoped that Rathi would get scared and hand him over the jewellery,” said Singh.Story continues below this adPolice said that in the ensuing struggle, Bunty stabbed Rathi once in his neck. And then, as he gathered the jewellery and cash and tried to leave, he found he had been locked out.