Woman murdered in east Delhi

NEW DELHI: A gang of four strangled a woman in front of her two school-going children on Thursday afternoon before taking away gold ornaments and other valuables from their Mayur Vihar house. One of the killers entered the house posing as a courier and was followed by the three others. They strangled Madhu Gupta, a housewife, when she resisted and spent half an hour inside the house.While leaving, they bolted the door from outside.
The 38-year-old’s murder has shocked her east Delhi neighbourhood and exposed chinks in the area’s security. The deceased lived with her husband and two children at 31A, Mayur Vihar phase-III, a ground floor flat. When the killers arrived, Madhu’s husband, Ajay Gupta, was not home and she was busy with household chores.
When Madhu’s son, Himanshu, answered the doorbell, he found a young “courier” at the door. Madhu asked him to let the man in, but three others also forced their way inside. They locked the wooden door from inside and pushed Himanshu and his sister, Himanshi, inside another room, warning them to keep quiet. They overpowered Madhu and one of them throttled her when she resisted.
A police officer said the gang first searched the house for the keys to an almirah and an iron safe, and left after about half an hour with ornaments and valuables. Around 3.15pm, their neighbour, Mrittika Goyal, heard Himanshi screaming and banging the door from inside. “She was asking for help. I informed my parents,” said Mrittika. She and her father R P Goyal found Madhu lying unconscious in the drawing room. They shifted her to Lal Bahadur Shastri Hospital, where she was declared dead.
“We are probing the sequence of events based on the eyewitness account and are trying to ascertain what valuables have been stolen,” said Ajay Kumar, DCP, east district. Another officer said the initial medical examination shows Madhu was strangled or throttled to death.