Elderly found dead at home in Gariahat

Kolkata: An elderly woman was found murdered on Thursday morning at her home on Garcha Road in Gariahat.

The deceased, identified as Urmila Jhund, was 65-year-old. Her domestic help saw her lying on the drawing room and informed her neighbours.

According to sources, Jhund lived with her younger son and his family at a house on Garcha Road. He elder son also lived nearby. Jhund hails from Punjab and she visited her native place quite often. She came back to the city approximately two months ago after her last visit to Punjab.

A few days ago, Jhund's younger son went to Siliguri along with his family to attend a wedding. On Wednesday night, her elder son was not at home and her daughter-in-law had sent dinner for her.

On Thursday morning, the domestic help of Jhund found the main door of the house was open. When she went inside she saw Jhund was lying in a pool of blood in the drawing room. She screamed and informed the woman's neighbours. Later, Gariahat police station was also informed.

During preliminary investigation, the police found multiple injury marks on her abdomen and throat. Also, the room was ransacked by criminals. The almirah was found open and all the objects were scattered in the room. Later, Joint Commissioner of Police (Jt. CP), Crime, Murlidhar Sharma along with Deputy Commissioner, South East Division, Ajay Prasad visited the spot. Sniffer dogs was also brought in. However the animals couldn't help much. Later, forensic surgeon Biswanath Kahali from SSKM hospital visited the spot and took stock of the situation.

In the afternoon, forensic experts visited the murder spot and collected samples.

Sources informed that forensic experts found several finger prints on the objects in the house. However, it will take some time to find out if there was fingerprints of outsiders at the incident spot as experts need to collect Jhund family members' fingerprint samples.

It is suspected that the accused person knew that the elderly woman lived alone and planned to rob the house.

On Wednesday night, around 10 pm, a few locals saw lights of Jhund's room were on. It is suspected that she might have been murdered after 10 pm. The investigation has been taken up by the homicide section of Detective Department, Kolkata Police.