Delhi doctor found murdered at home, her neighbour a suspect

Dr Garima Mishra, who lived in Ranjit Nagar, was preparing for her MD exams.

A 25-year-old doctor was found with multiple stab wounds and her throat slit at a rented apartment in central Delhi. Her flatmate, also a doctor, is the prime suspect for the murder, police said on Wednesday.

The victim, Garima Misra (HT Photo)

The woman and the 29-year-old man lived in separate rooms in a third-floor flat in Ranjit Nagar. He has been missing since the incident, police said. A third flatmate, who was not in the apartment at the time of the murder, is being questioned. All three worked as interns at a government hospital in Karol Bagh.

Police suspect that the victim, Garima Mishra from Uttar Pradesh’s Gorakhpur, may have had an altercation with Chandra Prakash Verma after which he killed her using either a kitchen knife or a surgical blade. A case of murder (Indian Penal Code 302) has been registered at the Ranjit Nagar police station.

“The exact sequence of the events leading to the doctor’s murder and the motive behind the crime can be ascertained only when we nab the suspect. As of now, Verma is our prime suspect because he is missing since Tuesday night,” deputy commissioner of police (central) Mandeep Singh Randhawa said.

“Mishra’s room was locked from outside. Her cousin wanted to break it because he panicked after he found the ceiling fan on. I arranged a stool — he climbed on it to peep inside through the ventilator. He saw her bleeding on the floor and her luggage kept nearby,” Khurana said.

After Pandey called the police control room, a team from the Ranjit Nagar police station broke open the door and rushed Mishra to hospital, where she was declared brought dead.

Mishra’s second flatmate, Rakesh Yadav, said he had found Mishra’s room locked when he returned after visiting a nearby temple around 9pm but did not think anything was amiss. He told the police that he was in his room when Khurana and Pandey arrived.

“Yadav told us that he last met Verma in the lane while he was returning home from the temple. He was carrying a backpack and looked in a hurry. When Yadav asked where he was going, Verma told him that he was going to his friend’s home to return books,” said a police officer associated with the case who asked not to be named.

Khurana said that Mishra and Verma had rented the two-bedroom flat in January. Verma started living from the first week of that month, while Mishra moved in a fortnight later in the other room. Yadav started living in Verma’s room from February.