Noida murder: Woman had sold house, cops say

Noida: Three days after a 70-year-old woman was found murdered inside the bathroom of her three-storey house in Noida’s Sector 15, the police said she had plans to settle abroad but was stuck here due to the lockdown.
They said Santosh Singh Nim had sold off her house to a neighbour in February. Additional DCP (Zone 1) Ranvijay Singh said the buyer had paid her Rs 15 lakh in advance.
“The woman was planning to shift abroad to one of her son’s houses and hence had sold the house. However, she was stuck here due to the lockdown,” he said, adding that eight people, including her tenants, neighbours, house help and driver, have been called for interrogation.
Singh said there were no signs of robbery or theft and they are going with their initial theory of “murder over property issues”.
The police said a 48-hour long CCTV footage is ‘crucial’ to their investigation as it shows the movement of some people in and around her house on July 26 and 27.
“The footage was acquired from one of her neighbour’s house. It is crucial because all the circumstantial evidence are pointing towards a known person,” said Singh.
Rakesh Kumar Singh, the SHO at Sector 20 and investigation officer in the case, said that the autopsy has confirmed that she died due to strangling - 24 hours before the body was recovered.
“The autopsy report has helped us in establishing the time of the woman’s murder. We are close to making the arrest,” he said.
Meanwhile, on Thursday, the body was handed over to one of her sons, who came to the city from Malaysia.
However, the cremation is likely to be held on Friday after her other two sons, who are apparently in transit from the UK and the US, come to the city.
“Her sons said she had kept her money and jewellery in a bank locker and they are clueless about her local connections,” he added.
The woman was found dead in her bathroom on Tuesday morning by one of her neighbours. The main door of her floor was shut while the side door was found open with no signs of forced entry.
Her husband had died two years ago and she was living alone on the first floor of her three-storey house in Sector 15. The remaining floors are occupied by tenants.