Two women staying in Worli, Mumbai were robbed and killed in separate incidents within 24 hours. In both cases, police said, the killers were known to the victims, reports Times of India.
65-year-old Vandana Kadam was found strangled in her ground floor flat at building number 6 of BDD Chawls in Worli early Friday morning. Police said cash and gold ornaments totalling Rs 1 lakh were missing from the house.
The previous evening, 89-year-old Sita Ananth Narayan's body was discovered with her throat slit in her house at Kaveri Building in Adarsh Nagar, Worli.
Aswati Dorje, deputy commissioner of police (Zone V), refused to single out any motive behind the crimes. He said the investigations were still on.
Vandana Kadam was an active member of the Nationalist Congress Party and helped her family run their business that deals in decorating pandals. Her body was discovered around 8.30 am on Friday by her employee when he visited Kadam's house accompanied by a customer.
“They immediately informed us; we rushed into the house and found Kadam lying on the ground. We called Kadam's daughter and son-inlaw who live in the same neighbourhood,” a neighbour said.
A police official said the robber tried to sexually abuse the victim before killing her.
On Thursday evening, 89-year-old Sita Ananth Narayan's body was found under similar circumstances. Narayan's husband KA Ananth Narayan, 90, rushed back from work around 7.00 pm after no one responded to his calls.
On reaching home, he found the flat locked from inside. “I called her on the landline phone and even called out through the window, but there was no reply. I then called my neighbour who helped me open the door. My wife was lying in a pool of blood in the bedroom. The killer only stole my wife's ornaments, but other valuables were not touched,” he said.
Police said the killer stole gold worth Rs 1.25 lakh from the victim's person.
Narayan's second son A Radhakrishnan said he was about to take his parents to Pune next month to live with him. “Before I could, this incident happened.”
