70-year-old woman robbed of ₹3 lakh, found dead in her Navi Mumbai home

A 70-year-old woman, who lived alone, was found dead under mysterious circumstances at her residence in Turbhe on Saturday evening.

Gold jewellery worth Rs3 lakh and her mobile phone worth Rs 7,000 are missing.

The police suspect that the victim, Suman Hande was killed by the thieves between Thursday and Saturday, but they have not registered a case of murder yet due to lack of evidence.

The body was in the early stages of decomposition, when it was found in her room, police said.

Initially, the police had registered it as an accidental death case, but after realising the theft of jewellery and based on the complaints by her family, they registered a case under section 460 and 380 (theft in dwelling house) of the Indian Penal Code on Wednesday.

According to police, Hande stayed at Sector 22 in Turbhe.

Hande’s son, Pravin stays with his family in Bhayandar and her three daughters live in Bhayandar, Pune and Kolhapur.

“On Friday, when we tried her number, it was unreachable. On Saturday, few residents informed us that her door was locked for two days and a foul smell was emanating from inside,” Pravin said.

“Two of my cousins reached the spot and opened the door. They found the body and took it to NMMC Hospital, where doctors said she had died around two days ago as the body was decomposing by then,” Pravin said.

Rajendra Galande of APMC police station said, “We had registered an accidental death case as no injury marks were seen on the body. After the family told us about missing gold, we applied other sections of the IPC.”

Assistant police inspector S Rakh said, “We are exploring the murder angle, but we cannot confirm now. Her viscera have been preserved for forensic tests,” he said.