A 55-year-old woman was allegedly raped and murdered by a 22-year-old man in north Delhi’s Gulabi Bagh in the early hours of Saturday, the police said.
An officer said the accused from Kishanganj, who used to work in an eatery close to the woman’s house, has been arrested. He had recently quit the job.
A man who owns a clock shop near the victim’s house said she used to live alone and ran a shop selling articles of worship on the front side of her residential room.
At 8 a.m. on Saturday, her relative, who used to visit her regularly, had come but found the shop’s wooden door open, he said.
“The relative thought she had gone to get water but when she did not return, he went inside the shop and saw her lying dead. He then called the neighbours after which the police were informed,” the shop owner said.
On reaching the spot, the police shifted the body to a mortuary for post-mortem. They said rape and death by strangulation are suspected but the report will throw light on the details.
The police then scanned CCTV footage from a shop close to the victim’s house which showed a man getting out of her house at 12.30 a.m. The suspect was identified by residents and shopkeepers.
He was arrested from his residence within a few hours, the police said.
During interrogation, he allegedly told the police that he was drunk at the time of the incident and had known the victim as she used to often come to the eatery where he earlier worked.
“He entered the shop on the pretext of buying something after which he forced himself on her and when she resisted, he strangulated her with his hands and fled the spot,” said a senior officer.
Victim lived alone
The victim was staying here since the early 1990s and her mother passed away two decades ago while her father died in 2006, said one of her relatives.
She did not have any siblings and therefore managed her expenses through the shop. “She was not in touch with her relatives. She was a reserved woman and we would meet her in months. I had shared my contact details with a neighbour and had asked him to contact me in case of an emergency,” he said.
A pan shop owner said the victim was very conscious. “She was a courageous woman. If a man even looked at her, she would spit on him and ask him to leave. She often washed clothes late night outside her house and if a man would come near her, she would throw a bucket full of water at him,” he said.
“She was a protector as she wouldn’t mind giving an earful to people if she found them suspicious,” he added.
The owner of the shop where the 22-year-old worked said the accused was a drunkard.
“The woman used to often come to the eatery. She was a well-behaved woman. The accused lied and quit the job but I know he wanted to start his own stall of food,” the 50-year-old owner said.
