Murder of 72-yr-old woman: 20 teams formed to crack case

NEW DELHI: A day after TOI reported the brazen murder of a 72-year-old woman, police said they have formed 20 teams and also roped in the crime branch to investigate.
Police suspect it could be the handiwork of either the ‘zeher-khurani gang’ (which drugs and loots people) or ‘dum ghontu gang’ (which strangles its victims). A team is also working on the personal enmity angle to see if it was made to look like a robbery gone wrong.Over 100 suspects have been questioned and footage from two dozen CCTV cameras on the route scanned.
“We are in the process of establishing the route she took from Mahipalpur. Teams have been formed to collect information from the areas she might have got off,” said DCP (southeast) Chinmoy Biswal.
Senior officers are also investigating allegations that the local police had initially refused to accept a missing complaint from the family and asked them to approach Vasant Kunj police station instead. It was only after a senior government officer intervened that a complaint was lodged at New Friends Colony police station.
Though the photographs of the woman were circulated in police WhatsApp groups, police allegedly took several hours to identify the woman after matching her details given by her family.
Investigation revealed that the woman, Roop Lata, had boarded a bus on route 717 A from Mahipalpur around 6.30pm and planned to get off near Prahladpur from where she would ride an autorickshaw to reach her home in Taimoor Nagar.
Police suspect she was attacked on the stretch between Sarita Vihar and Prahladpur. Preliminary autopsy revealed that she was smothered and had scratches on an arm and neck, indicating a scuffle. A part of her face was swollen, and her ear lobes and hands were wounded as the attackers had hurriedly removed her earrings and a gold bangle.
Her phone was active around Badarpur border till night.