Many unanswered questions after south Delhi triple murder

Police probing the murders of the elderly couple and their nursing attendant in south Delhi’s Vasant Vihar on Sunday stare at several questions as they look for clues in the blind case.

The bodies of 79-year-old Vishnu Mathur, Shashi Mathur, 75, and Khushbu Nautiyal, the 20-year nursing attendant, were found by the couple’s domestic help Babli, when she came to work on Sunday morning.

Police said the couple — Vishnu, a retired pharmacist from Central Government Health Scheme (CGHS), and former senior nursing assistant at the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) Shashi— had one stab wound each in their throats, while Nautiyal had at least five wounds around her neck.

Unclear motive

Was robbery the motive behind the three killings or the crime is related to a property dispute/personal enmity?

A police officer associated with the investigation said no signs of any resistance were found on the murder spot.

Though there were signs of ransacking in the bedroom, where the couple was found murdered on the bed, police said that it was unlikely that the crime was a robbery that escalated into murder.

Police have learnt that the couple wanted to gift their flat to a relative. They are probing if the murder is a result of a property dispute but are yet to find any evidence to support this.

Murderer or murderers?

The police suspect that the killer/s may have had a friendly entry into the couple’s first floor flat and that somebody known was involved in the murders.

They suspect Nautiyal may have unknowingly let a ‘friend’ or a ‘known person’ inside the house.

If so, then why was the nursing attendant too murdered?

Killed in their sleep

Police said that the couple may have been killed in their sleep. Did they notice something before going to bed that made the killer/s murder them?

Likely clues

The weapon appeared to be an ice pick given the nature of the wounds, police said, adding that it has not been found.

Two glasses half-filled with alcohol, a packet of cigarettes and some leftover food were found in the room where the nursing attendant was murdered.

Who consumed the alcohol? Did the suspect spike the nursing attendant’s drink before stabbing her to death?

“The glasses, with some alcohol in them, were found on a small round table in the dining room where Nautiyal’s body was found on the floor with blood around it. Prima facie, it appears that the suspect had consumed alcohol. Who had the drink or who served the drink is a matter of probe,” said a senior police officer privy to the probe.

Police said the footage of CCTV cameras installed in the neighbourhood is being scanned for clues regarding the suspect.

Missing articles

The cellphones of the couple and the nursing attendant were missing from the flat. Did the mobile phones contain vital clues about the suspect or the motive behind the killings?

The couple’s daughter told the police that she had last spoken to her parents around 8.30pm on Saturday over a video call.

“The video chat happened on Nautiyal’s cellphone. We are collecting the call detail records (CDR) of all the missing mobiles. An analysis of Nautiyal’s call details will help us ascertain if more calls were made between 8.30pm and 9am on Sunday when the murders were discovered,” an investigator said.

The triple murders come after two such crimes in the national capital between Saturday morning and Sunday morning.

A 51-year-old blind music teacher and his 47-year-old wife were found dead in their Mohan Garden home near Uttam Nagar on Saturday evening.

And, later in the day, a 33-year-old private tutor arrested for killing his wife and three children in south Delhi’s Mehrauli. The tutor killed his seven-year-old daughter, five-year-old son and a 40-day-old infant daughter by slitting their throats after serving them milk laced with sleeping pills at their house.

At least 233 murders have been reported in the city till June 15 — ten more than over the same period last year.

First Published: Jun 24, 2019 09:42 IST