Matunga murder: Senior citizen found dead at home

A 77-year-old woman, who stayed alone with her mentally-challenged brother, was found murdered at her Matunga residence on Monday evening. In what was an audacious act, the killer entered the flat while the woman's brother was in the hall, went up to the kitchen and slit her throat. It is suspected that he even opened the door to the victim's family doctor, who had come to visit her brother, and then left the house before the doctor found the woman's body only a few minutes later. 

The police suspect that the assailant was known to the victim — Manjula Vora — since there were no signs of forced entry and nothing was tampered with or stolen from Vora's fifth-floor flat at Pranav Building near Nappoo Park in Matunga (E). The murdered woman initially owned the property, which was later developed by builder Naresh Chheda, who is now the chairman of the building society.

According to other residents, Vora's husband died 30 years ago and she had since been staying with her brother Ravilal Doshi (75). Doshi hasn't been told about his sister's murder yet, since it would be difficult to handle his reaction once he is made aware of that fact.

The victim's sister Kamya Bhansali said: "I spoke to my sister at 6.30pm on Monday. She was having dinner then and said that Ravilal was unwell. So I had called our family doctor Dilip Shah and asked him to visit Manjula's home."

According to the police, Shah arrived at the flat around 7.40pm and rang the bell, but there was no response. So he came down and asked the watchman to call Vora through the intercom. The call was answered by a man.

The watchman asked him if Vora was home, to which the man replied in the affirmative.

“Shah then went back to the flat. The suspect, aged around 30 to 35 years and wearing a cap, opened the door. Shah asked him about Manjula and the suspect answered that she was inside. When the doctor entered the flat, the suspect left saying he had to go to other houses for work. He behaved as if he was the cook,” said an officer from Matunga police station. 

He added: “Shah then went to the bedroom and hall looking for Manjula, but she was not there. He then went to the kitchen and saw Manjula lying on the floor in a pool of blood, since her throat had been slit open with a sharp weapon. According to Shah, Ravilal was home at the time of the incident. However, due to Ravilal's medical condition, he has not been able to give any concrete leads in the case.” 

Chheda, on his part, said: “Dr Shah raised an alarm following the incident. We then informed the police and checked the CCTV footage of the building and learned that the suspect had entered the building around 7pm and left around 8pm. The footage also revealed that he was carrying a plastic bag with him. The watchman of the building had seen Manjula talking to the suspect near the building's gate two days ago, which is why when the suspect entered the building on Monday, the watchman did not stop him.”

The police then reached the spot and sent Vora's body for post-mortem to a government hospital. But they couldn't find the murder weapon at the spot.

“A cook who had been working with the Vora family for many years had left the job six months ago due to health issues. Vora's maid had heard Manjula talking to the cook over the phone about some monetary issue. Manjula had given some money to her cook, which the latter was supposed to return,” said another resident requesting anonymity.

“We are probing if someone known to the family committed the crime,” said a police officer.