70-year-old stabbed with ice pick at West Delhi home, cops suspect property dispute
Laxmi Devi lived on the ground floor of her two-storey home for the last 15 years. She had retired as a sanitation worker of the municipal corporation of Delhi and was not registered with the police’s senior citizen cell.
A 70-year-old woman living alone was found murdered with around a dozen stab marks at her home in west Delhi’s Khyala village on Wednesday night.
The killers, who are yet to be identified, stabbed the woman in her face, chest and back with an ice pick. She was also attacked on her head with a blunt object, probably a hammer, multiple times, police said.
Laxmi Devi lived on the ground floor of her two-storey home for the last 15 years. She had retired as a sanitation worker of the municipal corporation of Delhi and was not registered with the police’s senior citizen cell.
Police said there was no sign of forced entry suggesting she knew the attackers. Police suspect the motive could be personal enmity or a property dispute.
But robbery has not been ruled out as the house was ransacked. Some clothes and household items were lying scattered in two of the three rooms.
Laxmi’s relatives and locals told Hindustan Times that a CCTV camera at a factory near her home captured a male suspect dressed like a woman walking in the lane around 5.30 pm. The suspect was carrying a backpack and there were blood spots on his clothes.
Vijay Kumar, deputy commissioner of police (west), said that at about 9 pm, Laxmi’s nephew Shiv Narayan called the police to inform them about the murder. “Narayan said her aunt had head injuries and blood was oozing out from her nose and mouth” said Kumar.
A crime investigation team collected finger prints and other important evidence. Laxmi’s body was sent to a nearby government hospital where an autopsy was conducted.
Laxmi’s second nephew, Vinod, was the first to see her body after a local shopkeeper informed him that her home was latched from outside and she was not responding to neighbours’ calls.
“I reached there with my wife and unlatched the gate. The rooms were ransacked and my aunt’s body was lying in a pool of blood in her room. It appeared her head was smashed against the cot’s leg,” said Vinod.
The relatives suspect robbery and claimed some valuables were missing. They said some plumbers who had installed a water pipeline at Laxmi’s home early this week may be involved in the crime. The family denied any property dispute.
Laxmi is survived by her five daughters who are married and live in different parts of the city.
Her husband, Uttam Singh, died around 49 years ago while her son, Shyam, expired six years ago due to a heart ailment.
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