A 66-year-old woman was strangled using the cable of a mobile phone charger and her house robbed by unidentified persons at north-west Delhi’s Keshavpuram on Saturday. The robbers appear to have gained a friendly entry into the house and even had some snacks prepared by the victim.
They robbed cash and jewellery worth about Rs 7.5 lakh and police suspect these were removed from the lockers using a pair of scissors.
No suspect has been identified though and police teams have been formed to crack the case.
Victim Malti Mishra’s daughter Abha told Deccan Herald that the robbers did not even spare the jewellery on her mother’s body.
“They tore out her nose ring and earring. They checked every storage space in the house for valuables,” she said.
Malti lived with her husband Mahesh Chandra Mishra at their two-bedroom flat in DDA apartments.
Mahesh is an accountant with a private firm in Okhla while their son owns a jewellery shop in Karol Bagh where he lives with his wife.
According to relatives, Malti had last called her son around 11.45 am on Saturday to inform that someone had arrived with a courier in his name.
“My brother told her to receive it as it could be a bill. My father reached home around 6 pm to find the central lock of the door locked.
He ran the doorbell several times and called on her phone but when there was no response, he checked with the neighbours and then went to my brother’s home,” said Malti who lives with her husband in Faridabad.
Mahesh returned home with his son and daughter-in-law who had spare keys to the house. Once inside, they found Malti’s body in the storeroom and the house robbed.
“The robbers had probably attacked her as soon as she got water for them as glasses were lying broken in the house. They had first tried to strangle her with bare hands before using a mobile phone charger. When that did not kill her, they suffocated her with a pillow,” Abha suspected based on the condition of the house.
Presence of woman
The presence of a woman among the robbers has not been ruled out as a hair clutch that did not belong to Malti or any other woman member of the house was found at the spot.
There were also strands of long hair strewn on the spot and it is suspected that they belong to one of the assailants.
The lack of CCTV cameras in the locality has hampered the identification process of the assailants. Neighbours have told police that they heard no call for help.
A case of murder and robbery has been registered with Keshavpuram police station and investigations taken up.
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