Retired Delhi govt official murdered in Ghaziabad home

A 76-year-old woman was allegedly murdered by unidentified assailants at her residence in the posh Kavi Nagar area of Ghaziabad on Monday night. The victim, Prakash Juneja, was a retired official of the Delhi education department. Peeyush Khandelwal reports.

A 76-year-old woman was allegedly murdered by unidentified assailants at her residence in the posh Kavi Nagar area of Ghaziabad on Monday night. The victim, Prakash Juneja, was a retired official of the Delhi education department. The incident occurred around 9pm on Monday. Prakash was found dead on the first floor of her house, police said. She was rushed to a private hospital where doctors declared her brought dead.

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Her husband, Yograj Juneja, a retired Union Public Service Commission official, runs a billiards club on the ground floor of their residence.

Police suspect that two or three unidentified assailants might have barged into the victim’s first-floor room, while her husband and domestic help were busy at the billiards club on the ground floor.

“Robbery was perhaps the main motive of the assailants. They tied the victim’s mouth with a piece of cloth, which caused her death due to suffocation. We found her dead on a chair. The rooms were ransacked,” said SSP Raghubir Lal.

On a complaint filed by the victim’s husband, the police have registered a case of robbery and murder against the unidentified assailants.

Investigations have revealed that the iron grills on the ground floor club were closed due to the cold weather conditions. The first-floor door was opened because of a short-circuit hours before the murder. “The assailants took advantage of the situation and entered the first floor where the victim was alone,” Lal added. “The couple had no children. We are working on several leads and have detained the domestic help. Even the boys, who often came to play billiards, are being scanned,” said a police official.