Elderly couple, caretaker murdered in Vasant Vihar

Entry to flat was friendly and assailants deliberately ransacked house: police

June 24, 2019 01:30 am | Updated 09:15 am IST - NEW DELHI

Photo: Shiv Kumar Pushpakar

Photo: Shiv Kumar Pushpakar

An elderly couple and their caretaker were found murdered in their flat in south Delhi’s Vasant Vihar on Sunday morning.

The bodies of Vishnu Mathur, 78, his wife Shashi, 75, and their caretaker Khushboo, 22, were found in their two-bedroom flat on the first floor of Vasant Apartments. Police said the couple had one stab wound each on their throats while Khusboo had at least five similar wounds around her neck.

The entry to the flat was friendly and the assailants deliberately ransacked the house to make it look like robbery, the police said.

DCP (South West) Devender Arya said Khusboo, hired through a placement agency, had been staying with the couple for the past six months as a nursing attendant. Police suspect that someone known to her is involved.

Mr. Arya said they were informed about the incident at 8.50 a.m. by a neighbour. Babli, a domestic help who had come for household work at the flat, found the door open. On entering the flat, she found Khusboo lying on the floor in a pool of blood and the couple lying dead on a bed. She immediately alerted a neighbour.

“We have questioned several people who were frequent visitors to the flat. The case will be worked out soon,” Mr. Arya said.

The police said the couple is survived by a married daughter who lives in East of Kailash. She used to visit her parents regularly and talk to them daily through video calls.

“We spoke to the couple’s daughter and her husband to know if any jewellery, cash or valuables were missing from the house. They claimed that the couple did not keep any such valuables with them,” said the officer.

Vishnu had retired from the office of the Central Government Health Scheme and Shashi from a civic body in New Delhi. They had been living in Vasant Apartments for the past nearly 18 years.

The couple had lost their son in a road accident in 1999.

“Shashi was bedridden for the past few months as she had fractured her knee and underwent surgery. Khushboo was hired to take care of the couple as Vishnu had also stopped moving out of the flat due to ill health,” a police officer said.

0 / 0
Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.