Robbers murder woman before ransacking Delhi house

New Delhi, May 29 (IANS) Robbers murdered a 55-year-old woman with knives from her own kitchen and ransacked her west Delhi house, even as her daughter hid behind a couch in the drawing room, police said Friday.

Kiran Kapoor was killed Thursday evening by two robbers who entered her bedroom in her ground floor house in State Bank of India (SBI) colony in Paschim Vihar. Her daughter Sakashi Kapoor, 26, who was in the kitchen at that time, saved her life by hiding behind a couch in the drawing room.

The deceased's husband, Ashok Kapoor, who is an accountant, and son, Saurabh were not at home at the time.

Sakashi, who teaches in a private school, told the police that around 7 p.m., two men entered into their house as the gates were open.

According to a police officer, Sakashi said she was in the kitchen when she spotted the men entering the house. She said that she got scared and hid in the drawing room while the men entered her mother's bedroom.

'After some time, she heard the loud television sound from her mother's room. Sakashi said she also heard her mother scream but could not muster the courage to do anything,' the police officer told IANS.

He said Sakashi said the robbers were in the house for almost half-an-hour. When they left, she went on her mother's room and found her lying in a pool of blood on her bed. She then informed her father, brother and maternal uncle.

The police said the family took Kiran to the nearby Balaji hospital, where she was declared dead. Her post-mortem examination was later conducted at the Sanjay Gandhi hospital.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (West Delhi) Sharad Aggarwal said an inspection of the house suggested that the robbers entered the house easily.

'The robbers used kitchen knives to kill the victim, whose body bears multiple stab injuries. We have seized the knives lying in the room. A smashed alcohol bottle has also been recovered from the bedroom,' he said.

'Our initial investigations suggest that robbery was the motive behind the murder. The robbers have ransacked two of three bedrooms before fleeing. The family is preparing a list of stolen valuables and jewellery,' he added.

However, police said they were also investigating personal enmity as a motive behind the the murder as the jewellery Kiran was wearing was intact and quite a few valuables around the house had been left untouched.