A 91-year-old woman was murdered in her ninth-floor apartment at Ganga Jamuna, a highrise on Shakespeare Sarani, early on Tuesday, police said.
The preliminary post-mortem report suggests Renuka Chowdhury had been smothered to death around Monday midnight on her bed.
Police said blood stains were found on her mouth and the bedsheet on which she was lying face down.
Chowdhury’s younger son, Abhay, has reported to the police that several ornaments and two mobile phones were missing.
No one was arrested till late on Tuesday. Police sources said they were questioning a man who had earlier worked as a driver for the family and entered the 11-storey building, near Shakespeare Sarani police station, on Monday evening.
CCTV footage shows he left the building early on Tuesday, the sources said.
Abhay, a chartered accountant, said he and his mother lived in their apartment along with a domestic help, Pawan Yadav.
He had found the main door of the 2,000sq ft apartment unlocked when he left for his morning badminton session. He did not suspect anything amiss, he later said.
On his return, the domestic help told him that his mother was not responding.
Abhay checked and found his mother unresponsive.
He later told the police that the ornaments his mother was wearing and two mobile phones were missing.
The deputy commissioner of police, south, Akash Magharia, said the woman’s son had found blood stains on her mouth and bedsheet. They had called a doctor who declared her dead.
Abhay said that like other days he had left home around 5.45am to play badminton. He told the police that the apartment’s door was unlocked and Yadav, their domestic help, was asleep.
When he returned home around 7.30am, Abhay apparently found the door in the same condition.
“I did not suspect anything. I thought maybe the help had forgotten to lock the main door last night. After I returned, the help told me that my mother was not waking up. I went to check and found her unresponsive. It was only when I was trying to wake her up that I found blood stains on her mouth,” Abhay said.
The building at 28/1 Shakespeare Sarani has 80 apartments. “There are multiple security guards and CCTV cameras,” a police officer said.
“CCTV cameras are installed on every floor. Their footage is being examined in connection with the murder.”
Abhay said his mother was busy these days instructing their help on Diwali preparations.
“We went to sleep in our rooms around 9.30pm. There was nothing unusual in our routine,” he said.
Abhay’s elder brother is settled abroad, a family member has told the police.
Sources said the police were trying to find out whether the family had visitors, invited or uninvited, in the previous 24 hours.