MOHALI: The 66-year-old wife of a former additional advocate general of Punjab was strangled to death by robbers, who then looted cash and jewellery from the house in Mohali’s high-profile Phase-5 area late Monday. Police said defensive wounds on Ashok Kumari’s body proved she had fought fiercely but was overpowered and strangled with a rope. CCTV footage showed two robbers casually walking into the house around 11.40pm as if they knew their way around. With her husband, Krishna Kumar Goyal, and daughter in Muscat to visit the couple’s elder daughter, only Kumari and their housekeeper were at home. Cops said the robbers seemed to know that the rest of the family was not home.
The crime was discovered Tuesday morning by a maid who arrived to find Kumari dead in bed and the housekeeper, Neeraj, tied to a chair. She raised an alarm and police were alerted. Cops detained Neeraj (25) as his statements were inconsistent. He started working for the family around nine years ago. Neeraj claimed one of the men held him at gunpoint while the other one attacked Kumari. “We have formed multiple teams that are working in close coordination with each other. We are examining CCTV footage, and the servant is being questioned. He claims the robbers banged his head against the wall, but there’s no injury,” SSP Harmandeep Singh Hans said. Police suspect an insider’s hand because of two reasons: the door was opened from inside when the robbers rang the bell close to midnight, and the killers spared the house help, who was a bigger threat, and murdered the elderly woman. From the crime scene, police said Kumari was taken by surprise as she slept in her bedroom. After killing her, the goons spent two hours ransacking the house. They tied Neeraj to a chair and walked out. On being informed the next morning, SSP Hans, City SP Dilpreet Singh, SHO Sukhbir Singh and a forensic team went to the spot. The house was sealed as forensic specialists collected evidence. Police teams were scanning CCTV footage from nearby streets and houses, hoping to track the killers’ escape route. The body was kept in a mortuary, and postmortem will be conducted Wednesday after Kumari’s husband returns. The murder sent shock waves through Tricity, terrifying elderly citizens and their children who stay in other states or abroad.
