Unidentified assailants bludgeoned to death a 21-year-old woman and caused grievous injuries to her 50-year-old mother at their house in Narela on Sunday morning. According to the police, prima facie it appears to be a case of murder for gain.
As both the women were found in a partially disrobed state, the police have not ruled out sexual crime being a prelude to the murder.
Since the mother was not fit for statement, the police await the post-mortem report to ascertain if the woman was raped. And if indeed rape is established, it will be one of the first murder-after-rape cases reported in the Capital since the infamous December 16 gang-rape.
Besides the two victims, the deceased woman’s two-year-old son was also present in the house during the attack. Even though the boy escaped unhurt, blood stains were found on his body suggesting that one of the injured women had either picked him up or tried to get near him, said the police.
The deceased woman had come to her parents’ house three days ago. On Saturday night, her father and two siblings had gone to sleep at a nearby house. The incident came to light around 5 a.m. when a younger sibling of the deceased returned home. He saw the two women lying in pools of blood at some distance from one another. While the older woman was found inside the one-room house they were staying in, her daughter was found next to the door.
Describing the scene, a neighbour (who also informed the police) told The Hindu : “Their clothes were missing. Both had sustained injuries on different parts of their bodies, mainly on the heads. It seemed they had been crushed with a heavy object. There were a few blood-stained bricks near the victims. The daughter’s body was found with her earlobes cut off . The mother, though alive, was in need of immediate medical help. The police reached 10 minutes after a call was made to them and rushed the two victims to the hospital.”
He added that the attackers had bolted the doors of the neighbouring houses to ensure that no one could come out to help them. However, other neighbours said they did not hear any screams.
A trunk kept in the house was found open, said the police adding that the attackers might have tried to take away articles kept in it and attacked the mother-daughter duo when they offered resistance to the robbery attempt. The damaged earlobes also pointed to the snatching away of jewellery. The police may also question the husband and in-laws of the deceased woman who are based in Sonepat. It was after a fight that her father-in-law had dropped her at her parents’ house a few days ago, said a source.
