Elderly woman found murdered at residence

Police suspect robbery as motive behind the murder

A 64-year-old woman was murdered in her house in Hari Nagar here on Friday during a robbery.

Pavitra Kaur, a resident of Meenakshi Garden, was found dead in a pool of blood with an injury on the head when her grandchildren returned from school around 3 p.m.

“When the children, aged seven and ten years, returned from school in the afternoon they found the door to their first-floor house latched from the outside. The two then went to their neighbour on the ground floor looking for their grandmother. The neighbour accompanied the two to their house and found Ms. Kaur lying in a pool of blood in the kitchen,” said Additional Commissioner of Police (West) V. Renganathan.

The police suspect robbery as motive as Rs.50,000 were found missing from a cupboard.

Ms. Kaur's husband Kanwaljit Singh and son Sunit run an air-conditioning repair shop on Roshnara Road and were away at work at the time of incident. The victim's daughter-in-law Anupreet Kaur, a teacher, was in school at Pitampura.

Assailants

Preliminary investigation suggests that the assailants were known to the victim. “We have found a glass of water on a tray inside the house. The entry to the house seems friendly. It suggests that the assailant was known to the victim and gained entry easily,” said Mr. Renganathan.

The murder probably took place within 30 minutes of Sunit leaving for the shop. “Sunit left for his shop around 1 a.m. and some 15-20 minutes later their neighbours on the ground floor heard a loud thud. They tried to call Ms. Kaur on her mobile, but there was no response,” said Mr. Renganathan.

The police suspect the role of a maid who had taken a day's off on the pretext of getting her voter-identity card made. She was employed two months ago.