A 19-year-old man has been arrested for killing his grandmother by smashing her head with a hammer in east Delhi’s Shahdara area, police said on Monday.

The police received information on Sunday night that a woman has been hit on the head by a hammer by a man at Delhi’s Rohtash Nagar.

They rushed to the spot and found an elderly woman, identified as Satish Kumari (73), lying on a chair with a head injury. Blood was also found on the floor, a senior police officer said.

The police came to know that the woman has two sons. Her elder son lived on the second floor of the same building and her other son lived in an area nearby.

On Sunday morning, when her elder son came downstairs, he found her mother’s room, situated on the ground floor of the building, locked from outside.

He called his brother and enquired about her and found that his mother was not there, the officer said.

His younger brother also reached the house and they broke open the lock of the her room. When they entered the room, they found their mother and later informed the police, police said.

A case under section 302 (murder) of the IPC has been registered, police said.

The accused grandson (son of the woman’s elder son), who lived in the same building, has been arrested. The hammer used in the crime has also been recovered, they said.

Police said the incident took place on Saturday around 8 pm. The accused asked his grandmother to give him money and when she refused, he hit her on the head with a hammer and fled after taking Rs 18,000.

According to the police, the accused was under debt and in dire need of money.