Robbers strangle housewife

NEW DELHI: In a gruesome incident on Wednesday afternoon, Garima Agarwal, a 34-year-old housewife, was found strangled in her house in Jeevan Park in Bindapur, near Dwarka's Sector III, by robbers. Garima's five-year-old daughter, Aastha, was left for dead by the unidentified intruders but survived to tell the story.
On Wednesday afternoon, Garima was at home with her daughter who had not gone to school.Garima's husband, a junior engineer with CPWD, was at work while their 11-year-old son, Parth, was at school. According to the police, when Parth returned home, around 2.30 pm, he found the front gate and the main door of the house open and Garima's room locked from inside. Parth knocked on the door repeatedly. When there was no response,he went over to their neighbour, Savitri Devi's house.
When the door had not been opened even after her Savitri called out to Garima, Savitri and Parth went up to the terrace from where Parth climbed onto the mesh outside Garima's room. He then heard the muffled cries of his sister.
Savitri had spare keys to the back door of the room, which was locked from outside. When they opened it, they saw Garima's body lying on the bed. Aastha was inside a box bed with her head sticking out. Savitri immediately called up the police and Garima's body was taken to DDU Hospital.
According to Aastha, one "Shyam uncle", along with another person, had come home and strangled her mother. Aastha had been put in the settee in such a way that she would suffocate to death. "When Aastha apparently passed out, the killers thought she was dead and left. She is in a state of shock and is not able to talk much. However, there seems to have been a carpenter called Shyam who had been working here for some months. We have launched a hunt for him and his accomplices and are also probing other angles," said a police official from Bindapur police station. The official added that the house had been robbed but the extent of robbery could not be ascertained. Garima's jewellery had been stolen and the locker had been cleaned out. Her husband was informed about the incident by Savitri, who called him at work.
medha.chaturvedi@timesgroup.com