An elderly couple, both retired government employees, and their 24-year-old domestic help were found murdered at their Vasant Vihar home on Sunday.
Police identified the victims as Vishnu Mathur (80), his wife Shashi Mathur (75) and their help Khushboo Nautiyal. The throats of all three victims were slit using a sharp object, said police.
“Prima facie, there are no signs of robbery, and the entry into the house does not seem forced. We are probing if someone known to the domestic help committed the murders,” said a senior police officer.
The three, police said, were found dead when their second domestic help, Babli, arrived in the morning. She was employed to clean the house while Khushboo took care of an ailing Shashi.
Police said that at 8.30 am, when Babli arrived at the first floor house in the DDA flats, she saw blood oozing from beneath the door. She informed neighbours and they opened the door, which was bolted from outside.
READ | Delhi elderly couple murder: Ailing, they didn’t step out much, say neighbours
Police said the neighbours first found Khushboo’s body inside the drawing room and then saw the bodies of the couple inside their bedroom. Police said there were several injuries on the victims’ necks.
“We received a call at 8.53 am from a neighbour saying that the man, his wife and their help had been murdered. We rushed to the spot and found the victims in a pool of blood, with their throats slit. We have got some strong leads and are working on them,” said DCP (South West) Devender Arya.
Police have recovered CCTV footage from a camera in the area which shows a man wearing a helmet and a woman whose face is covered with a scarf entering the building around 11 pm on Saturday. The footage shows them leaving after a short while. “We are trying to identify them. We also scanned Khushboo’s call detail records and are exploring if someone known to her was involved,” a police officer said.
Khushboo was hired by the couple almost a year ago via a placement agency. Her antecedents were verified by police.
Shashi had been unwell for a few years and Khushboo was employed to look after her, said a neighbour. Police said the couple weren’t registered with the local police senior citizen cell and were dependent on agencies who would send domestic helps to take care of them.
“They were living alone for the past 10-15 years. Their daughter lived far from their house but would visit often. Babli, the help, informed us about the murder around 8.30 am and we called police,” said Sharad Singh, who lives on the ground floor of the same building.
The post-mortem will be conducted on Monday. Khushboo’s aunt lives in Delhi and has been informed.