18-year-old woman found dead in Delhi’s Tahirpur

An 18-year-old woman was found dead in a house on Sunday afternoon in northeast Delhi’s Tahirpur, where she lived with her uncle and aunt. Police said investigation revealed the woman’s uncle and aunt begged for a living.

Police said the woman’s uncle, who is the prime suspect, is on the run. “The victim did not have any visible injury on her body. We are probing the cause of the murder,” a senior police officer said.

The woman had recently cleared her class 12 board exams, the police said, and her parents live in Bihar.

The matter was reported around noon when Nand Nagri police station received a call informing them about the murder. The police team that reached the spot found the woman’s body in the house.

“A woman, who introduced herself as the aunt of the deceased, told police that she and her husband work as beggars. She said the dead woman was her niece and lived with them. She said that when she returned home on Saturday night, she found the door locked from outside. She waited for her husband to return home, but when he did not return, she slept in the neighbour’s house,” said a police officer who wished not to be named.

The officer said that when the woman returned home on Sunday morning, the door was still locked and her husband had not returned. “She then broke open the door with the help of her neighbours and found her niece lying unconscious on the floor,” he said.

The police then took the woman to a hospital, where she was pronounced dead and her body shifted to a mortuary for a post-mortem examination.

Deputy commissioner of police (northeast) Ved Prakash Surya said a case of murder has been registered. “We are searching for the woman’s uncle who is absconding. He is our prime suspect. The woman did not have any apparent fatal injuries and an autopsy will confirm the cause of death,” Surya said.

Police have also not ruled out the possibility of sexual assault and are waiting for the post-mortem reports.