Mumbai: Senior citizen robbed, murdered at Matunga

A 79-year-old woman was found murdered at her Matunga residence on Tuesday. With gold ornaments missing from the residence, the police suspect that the murder was committed for robbery.

According to the Shahu Nagar police who is probing into the case, deceased Vasanta Lakshminarayanan Iyer would stay alone on the ground floor of a four-storey building at Matunga Labour camp. The incident came to light when Iyer's maid visited the house on Tuesday evening and found the latter lying on the floor with a dupatta tied across her neck.

When all her efforts to wake Iyer up went in vain, the maid suspecting something amiss informed a neighbour. The neighbour then informed the police, who immediately rushed to the spot and took Iyer to a nearby hospital where she was pronounced dead.

"Iyer's postmortem report revealed that she was strangulated to death. We suspect that when the victim tried to resist the robbers, they strangulated her and later decamped with the gold ornaments and cash," said a police officer.

"All ornaments worn by Iyer were missing. Her cupboard was ransacked. We are trying to get leads from the CCTV footages of the area," said the officer.

"We are making inquiries with everyone who knew Iyer including the watchman and the milkman. The robbers were probably aware that she stays alone in the apartment. We have collected fingerprint samples from the crime scene to ascertain if more than one person was involved," said a police officer.

The police have registered a case against unknown persons on charges of robbery and murder.

STRANGULATED

• Victim’s postmortem report revealed that she was strangulated to death 
   
• All ornaments worn by the victim were missing. Her cupboard was ransacked