The boy's fault was that he was crying and the robber thought this would alert the neighbours. The robber took away Rs 1,500, jewellery worth Rs 15,000 and, the police say, all audio and video cassettes in the house.

In pocket-B of the upmarket DDA colony, where the incident took place, residents are shocked. ``How can anyone do this to a child, even a robber,'' says an elderly neighbour.

Around 11.30 a.m., when a medium-built man wearing a black coat came knocking, the 13-month boy, Rahul, was with his mother, Kalpana. His father Uma Kant Holelkar, an engineer with a private concern, was away at work. And his sister Aditi, 7, was in school. The family had moved from Bangalore to Delhi only six months ago.

When Kalpana opened the door of her second floor flat, the man, believed to be in his thirties, claimed he was from a courier agency and had come to deliver a packet for her husband.

As soon as Kalpana signed the receipt, the man said ``Your baby is crying''. Kaplana says she turned around, and in a flash the man clamped her mouth before forcibly entering the flat. Inside, he gagged and bound her and asked her to hand over the keys to the almirah.

The man then systematically went about looting the house, opening drawers, cupboards and whatever he thought could contain valuables. He also removed the jewellery she was wearing. Then he spotted two gold earrings on Rahul.

``He tried to remove them, but Rahul started crying,'' says a shattered Kalpana, breaking down every time she recounts the incident. ``The man simply picked up Rahul, went to the bathroom and threw him into a bucket. I struggled to free myself, but...''.

Rahul was silenced, forever. Kalapana did not know then. For almost 30 minutes, she struggled with the ropes on her hands and the gag on her mouth. Her ordeal ended when her maid-servant came and heard her moans from outside.

Neighbours say they did not hear anything till Kalapana came running out and narrated the incident. Rahul was taken to a nearby hospital, but was declared dead on arrival.

Investigations have revealed that at least five persons from different courier agencies came to pocket-B, around the time Kalapna was attacked. But another person, matching the description of Rahul's assailant, also came to the colony around the same time. He was driving a Maruti car with a Punjab registration number.

A security guard in the colony says: ``We note down the registration number of every car entering the colony. Also every outsider coming to the colony has to register himself on the register. We remember talking to a Maruti driver, who came looking for directions to some addresses''.

The police also suspect that the robber was probably aware of the fact that Kalpana and Rahul are alone in the house during the day. ``We are going to question every outsider who had access to the house,'' says a senior official.