Police banking on call details of missing phones, questioning kin

Delhi police are banking on the call details of two mobile phones that went missing from the house, where three members of a family — a 23-year-old journalism graduate and her parents — were found murdered on Friday morning. Police have put the two phones on surveillance and are suspecting that accused took it with them.

Delhi police are banking on the call details of two mobile phones that went missing from the house, where three members of a family — a 23-year-old journalism graduate and her parents — were found murdered on Friday morning. Police have put the two phones on surveillance and are suspecting that accused took it with them.

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Police are also collecting CCTV footage of the cameras installed at Singhu border to ascertain if any of the victim's relative had come to Delhi on Thursday. "Personal enmity could be the motive behind the killings and relatives of the deceased are prime suspects. We are hopeful of achieving a breakthrough," a senior police officer said.

Karishma Chauhan alias Rozy and her mother Rekha Chauhan, 52, were found strangled to death in their first-floor bedroom while her father Yogendra Pratap Singh Chauhan,

52, was found in a pool of blood on his bed on the ground floor of their two-storey residence in Rohini's Sector 17. On Saturday, Delhi police questioned several relatives, including the son-in-law and daughter-in-law of the victim couple.

Chauhan's eldest daughter had received R2.5 lakh compensation from her husband recently after they got separated. "Chauhan had also sold his ancestral land in Etah in UP and we have called his brother for questioning to ascertain if there was any dispute between them over this issue. We are currently focusing on these three transactions and relatives are being interrogated at length," the officer added.

Sources said Chauhan had last spoken to his son-in-law on Thursday night. Chauhan, who was into chemical business, was hit on the back of his head with a blunt object and died due to excessive bleeding.

Entry into the house was friendly, hence investigators are sure that the killers were known to the victims. Police said the assailants, in order to destroy evidence, washed the floor of the bedroom.

An injury mark on Rozy's forehead suggested that she was also hit with a blunt object before being strangulated using her chunni, the other end of which was tied to the iron grill of the window. Rekha was strangled using the cable of an electric iron.