Woman murders her 58-year-old mother with help from fiance, friend; all 3 arrested

In an attempt to mislead investigators, the woman called the police to report her mother “not opening the door” in the morning

A 28-year-old woman allegedly conspired with her fiancé and a friend to murder her 58-year-old mother in west Delhi’s Najafgarh on Friday over what appeared to be a property dispute, police officials said on Saturday, adding that all the three accused in the case have been arrested.

Police identified the victim as 58-year-old Sumitra Solanki and her daughter as 28-year-old Monika. (Representational image)

In an attempt to mislead investigators, the woman called the police to report her mother “not opening the door” in the morning. However, she was exposed when investigators scanned CCTV footage from the area and noticed that she entered the building with the two men hours before the alleged murder, police officers aware of the matter said.

Police identified the victim as 58-year-old Sumitra Solanki and her daughter as 28-year-old Monika. The other two accused in the case were 29-year-old Naveen Kumar Khatri, who is engaged to Monika, and Khatri’s friend 26-year-old Yogesh Kumar, said deputy commissioner of police (Dwarka) Ankit Singh.

According to police, the control room received a call at around 1pm on Friday in which Monika told police that her mother was not opening the door at their house. Monika also told police that she had last visited her mother on Thursday afternoon when Sumitra appeared to be fine.

“There were clear marks of bruises on her forehead, eye and wrists of both her hands. Her mouth was open and bloody. There were signs of rigor mortis – or postmortem rigidity – all over her body,” said the investigator.

DCP Singh said that a case was registered under section 103 (1) (punishment for murder) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita was registered at Najafgarh police station.

During probe, when investigators scanned the CCTV footage since Thursday, they found that a woman and two men entered the building at 2.18am on Friday.

“The suspects were then identified,” the investigator said.

On Friday night, Monika was apprehended for questioning and when confronted with CCTV footage, she broke down and confessed to the crime, police said. On Saturday, Khatri and Yogesh were also arrested. All the three were taken into police custody for three days.

An investigator said that the interrogation revealed that the motive behind the murder was property but there are two versions that need to be verified.

“Monika’s mother was against her marriage with Naveen. But Monika was relentless, following which Sumitra agreed grudgingly. However, Sumitra recently got her will made and gave all her property to her son, who lives in Mohan Garden with his family. Frequent fights between the mother and daughter followed. Another version is that the fight between the mother-daughter was over a property, which was in Sumitra’s name, and Monika wanted to own it,” the officer said.

So, she planned to kill the mother and executed her plan on Friday, the officer said.

The body has been sent for a post-mortem examination to ascertain the cause of death, police said.