Timarpur murder fallout of money deal, cops feel

A money-lending deal by a 62-year-old teacher that went sour could have led to her murder in Timarpur on Tuesday, Delhi police feel.

A money-lending deal by a 62-year-old teacher that went sour could have led to her murder in Timarpur on Tuesday, Delhi police feel.

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The interrogations of close to two dozen people have revealed that the teacher, Madhu Mehra, may have been killed by a creditor who did not want to return the borrowed amount.

“Mehra lived alone and managed to save large portions of her salary. She would lend money from her savings to her acquaintances,” said a police officer. She would invest the money she earned from the business in fixed deposit policies, her recent financial transactions have shown. The police said they stumbled upon Mehra’s money-lending business during the questioning of Rajinder, a lab assistant at a government school in adjacent Roop Nagar who also was her caretaker.

“Rajinder had borrowed Rs 10,000 that he had returned to her on October 1 — when she was probably murdered. His questioning led us to 19 to 20 other suspects, all of whom had sought loans from her recently,” the officer said.

Although officers said it was too early to speculate on what motivated Mehra’s murder, sources said they had reason to believe that her flat had been ransacked in an apparent bid to make the murder look like the fallout of a robbery.