In a shocking incident, a 76-year-old woman, N. Mohana, was found strangled to death inside her house that was locked from outside near Mahatma Gandhi Nagar under Koodal Pudur police station limits on Wednesday morning.
The deceased, widow of a retired administrative officer from the Department of Agriculture, was living alone in the house located at CRO Colony. The police said the woman was last seen on Tuesday morning. With seven sovereigns of gold missing from her body, the police suspect that it was a case of murder for gain.
The incident came to light as her tenant Nagarathinam, a woman living alone in a portion of the independent house, grew suspicious when she noticed that the television set and the fan inside the locked house were switched on. “Since, it was raining on Tuesday evening, I remained indoors. Only when I crossed the house to pluck flowers on Wednesday morning, I noticed that the TV was on,” she said.
Ms. Nagarathinam alerted Mohana’s daughter Usharani, living in Alangulam. When Ms. Usharani came to the house, people tried to peep through the door screen and they found Mohana lying on the floor.
“Initially, we thought that our aunt, who had a pacemaker in her body, could have swooned. Only after breaking open the lock, we found her dead,” said P. Lavanya, a relative of the deceased.
The police said the legs and hands of Mohana had been tied, and a nylon rope was around her neck.
Mohana’s son, who works as Deputy General Manager in a thermal power unit in Thoothukudi, said her mother always used to keep the grille gate locked. “Only when someone familiar turned up, she would open the door. I suspect that someone known to her could have come home,” he said.
The culprit could have locked the door from outside so that the crime would not come to light immediately.
The police said the incident could have happened on Tuesday afternoon as the body had started decomposing.
