The letter was addressed to the victim’s daughter.

The deceased, S B Saxena, had hired the help some six months ago — from an agency running out of the Capital’s Greater Kailash area.

The police suspect Vishi, 21, was emotionally unstable. His letter, in broken Hindi, is addressed to Saxena’s daughter Rashmi. It says, “I am not taking anything away from the house… I was forced to take this extreme step as I was under life threat… Please try and forgive me.”

The police are still not clear about the motive, for nothing was stolen or found missing. A murder case has been registered at DLF Phase-II Police Station based on Rashmi’s complaint.

Saxena had moved to Gurgaon some seven years ago and had hired Vishi after his wife passed away last year.

The police believe Saxena was killed sometime during Monday night. Gurgaon ACP (East) Sumit Kumar said, “There’s evidence that he was alive at 7.30 pm Monday, when he sent out some e-mails,” Kumar said. Rashmi corroborates this: “I spoke to my father last around 6 pm on Monday — he was fine at the time. I usually check on him twice a day, and when I called this morning, around 11, there was no response.”

With the phone ringing away at the house, Rashmi panicked and called a neighbour, Deepa Sahai, to check on Saxena. Sahai, given a set of keys in case of emergencies, found Saxena’s body in the bedroom; Vishi was missing.

ACP Kumar said Vishi probably committed the murder under stress, though the police are “yet to ascertain the cause of the stress; it could have been something from outside his job as well.”

He said the accused “does not seem to be a hardened criminal. But some evidences — like his presence in the house for almost 10 hours after the murder and taking away all photographs and documents of identity — point towards a very clear-thinking mind at work following the murder.”

Of Saxena’s four children three sons based in the US, and daughter Rashmi lives in DLF Phase V.

“My father was a peace-loving person,” she said, “and was too old to indulge in any sort of malice against anyone.”

The police, too, said they have found no reason to believe Vishi was abused or tortured in the house.