Two elderly women in West Mambalam were strangulated to death and their house looted on Wednesday. The septuagenarians were found dead by their domestic help. The almirah and cupboards were ransacked.
According to police sources, Jayalakshmi (75) and her sister Kamakshi (72) lived in a rented house on K.R. Koil Street, West Mambalam. Kamakshi was a retired chemist in the Kings Institute.
On Wednesday, the women did not respond to calls of the milk vendor who left without delivering the milk. Around noon their domestic help came to work and found the front door left ajar.
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The victims were found dead in different rooms.
“It is a case of murder for gain. Neighbours claimed to have seen the women wearing more than 25 sovereigns of jewellery on a few occasions… the jewellery are missing. We have formed five special teams to investigate the case. Forensic experts have lifted some fingerprints from the scene of crime,” Assistant Commissioner of Police (Ashok Nagar) K. N. Murali said.
The women who lived on the ground floor of a building remained indoors most of the time and would order medicines or groceries to be delivered at home.
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“They would open the door only after ascertaining the identity of the visitors. We suspect that someone known to the women might have attacked them. The murders might have taken place on Tuesday night,” he said.
Mr. Murali said the bodies were shifted to the Government Royapettah Hospital for post-mortem. Neighbours neither remember having seen nor heard anything unusual in the house. “Police are making enquiries with the milk vendor, domestic help, newspaper delivery person and others. A piece of cloth was used to strangulate the women. We suspect the involvement of more than one person in the crime.”
Enquiries with local people revealed that the women visited a nearby temple during weekends. “They would go together wearing silk saris and gold jewellery. Somebody seems to have been noticing their movements… it is possible that the suspects might have followed them into the house.
There is no trace of the door being opened forcibly,” the official added.
The Kumaran Nagar police have registered a case and are investigating.