A widow and her distant relative were found murdered at their rented accommodation in west Delhi’s Vikas Nagar on Saturday morning.
The extent of injuries on the victims indicated they were repeatedly struck with a sharp object, possibly an axe or a club. The killer also crushed the victims’ faces before leaving.
A senior police officer said several teams had been constituted to crack the case and that there were vital leads into the identity of the killers.
Insider’s job? Several persons are being questioned in connection with the double murders even as a senior investigator said that a relative of the woman is among the suspects. The police said it was also likely that the murdered duo was not the original target of the assailants.
The deceased have been identified as 42-year-old Sunita and her distant brother-in-law, Rajesh, 40. Neighbours said the duo had been living together in a one-room set in Vikas Nagar’s S-Block for the last 10 months.
Neighbours, however, were found unaware of the work profiles of the murdered duo. They said Sunita introduced herself as a policewoman and Rajesh as a DJB employee.
Sunita’s husband had died around a decade ago. Her two daughters are married, and her 16-year-old son lives with his maternal grandparents at their native village in Outer Delhi’s Baprola.
However, the marriage of her younger daughter, Jyoti, was in the doldrums. She was married to a Haryana-based taxi driver over a year ago, but she had recently returned to her mother following a marital discord with her husband.
Cloud of suspicion Investigators have learnt that Jyoti’s husband had been blaming Sunita for their troubled married life. His location at the time of the murders is being ascertained, said an officer.
The police are also questioning Jyoti, who was absent from her mother’s home when the murders occurred. She had spent the night at a female friend’s home in the neighbourhood. The friend, however, has said she frequently stayed over at her place at nights.
The murders came to light around 7 a.m. on Saturday when some children in a neighbouring under-construction building climbed their terrace.
“The children raised an alarm after noticing Rajesh lying in a pool of blood on his terrace. We informed the police who found Sunita’s body lying on her bed in her room,” said Rekha Chauhan, a neighbour.
