Woman found murdered with blow to head in Delhi's Burari, probe on

A woman, believed to be in her mid-forties, was found murdered with her face smashed by a heavy object in north Delhi’s Burari on Tuesday morning.

The investigators suspect the heavy object used to commit the murder was a stone. The police are scanning CCTV footage from the area to identify the people who were last seen with her hours before her body was discovered.

"The body was found in a lane near a pump house in Tomar Colony after a property dealer spotted it and alerted the police. A police team reached the spot and called an ambulance. However, the ambulance staff declared the woman dead, following which forensic and crime teams were called to examine the scene," an officer aware of the matter said.

Police subsequently took the body into custody and sent it for a post-mortem examination. An FIR under the murder section of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) has been registered, but the motive behind the killing is yet to be established.

The investigation

During inquiries, police learnt that the woman had lived in the locality in Burari on rent until around four years ago and earned a living by selling goods from a roadside cart. She later moved to Singhu village with her children but continued to visit the area once every month or two.

According to police, she was known to consume alcohol and wander around the locality.

"Some residents saw her in the area on Monday morning and again late at night, when she was allegedly intoxicated," the officer said.

A review of CCTV footage showed the woman walking with a young man and a young woman at around midnight. The footage allegedly showed the man allowing the young woman to walk ahead before leading the victim in another direction, out of the camera's view.

Investigators are now examining footage from other cameras in the neighbourhood to trace the sequence of events and establish the identities of the two people seen with her. The probe into whether the two have any connection with the murder is underway.

The officer said that a police team has also been sent to Singhu village to locate the woman's residence and contact her family members.