Believe it or not, NRI from New York, Sanjeev Mahajan is sitting
in New Delhi for the past nine months, fighting for justice for
his murdered mother and sister.
Swarana Mahajan, 73 yrs old mother and sister Anuratha, 47, both
High Court lawyers were killed in March 2006 by four men in their
Sidharth Enclave home, opposite Maharani Bagh
The men entered the house and looted jewellery worth over Rs
20 lakh. Their hands were found tied behind their backs. The police
found that one of the men had worked as a domestic help in a neighbour's
house. The four are being tried.
"I know someone who called me to condole the death of my
mother and sister. And he said, I can empathise with you. I understand
what you're going through because when I was a child my father
was killed by three men. And one of those three people actually
died of old age by the time they were sentenced," said Sanjeev
Mahajan, victim's son.
The mother and daughter lived by themselves. While Swarana was
a widow, Anuratha separated from her husband more than 20 years
ago.
NRI Mahajan says:
Woman, daughter found
murdered in flat
NEW DELHI,Mar 13, 2006
The Hindu
Staff Reporter
Both victims were lawyers; culprits made friendly entry into
their South Delhi apartment, say police
TRAGIC END: Swarna Mahajan (left) and her daughter Anuratha who
were found gagged to death in their South Delhi flat on Sunday.
A 73-year-old widow and her 48-year-old daughter, both practicing
lawyers at Delhi High Court, were found gagged to death under
highly mysterious circumstances at their Siddhartha Enclave flat
in South Delhi on Sunday. While their domestic help is being questioned,
the police suspect the hand of someone known to the victims in
the crime.
According to the police, domestic help Geeta reached the ground
floor residence of Swarna Mahajan and her daughter Anuratha around
8 a.m. She knocked at the door several times but did not get any
response. Suspecting that something was amiss, Geeta contacted
a neighbour and they broke open the door. When they saw the bodies
of Ms. Mahajan and Ms. Anuratha lying with their hands tied, they
raised an alarm and immediately called in the police.
Initial probe revealed that an almirah had been ransacked. "A
couple of cupboards have been found ransacked, but it would be
too early to say that the murders were committed with robbery
as a motive. There was a friendly entry into the house indicating
that the victims knew the assailants well. Plates with leftovers
were found on a table suggesting that someone had come to meet
the mother and the daughter on Saturday evening," said a
police officer.
The police have seized a register containing registration numbers
of the vehicles entering the housing complex to ascertain who
all met the victims in their house on Saturday evening. The security
guard posted at the entrance gate told the police that around
6-45 p.m. on Saturday, a car with an Uttar Pradesh registration
number had come to pick up Ms. Anuratha. She returned in another
vehicle bearing another Uttar Pradesh number around 8-55 p.m.
In her statement to the police, Geeta claimed that she had left
around 7-30 p.m.
A family friend, Veena Nanda, said Ms. Mahajan was supposed to
visit a temple on Sunday morning. As she was not feeling well,
Ms. Nanda sent a car to pick her up. But she did not turn up,
after which Ms. Nanda came to know that both Ms. Mahajan and Ms.
Anuratha had been murdered.
According to area residents, Ms. Mahajan had been living with
her daughter at the Siddhartha Enclave flat since 1983. Her son
Sanjeev works with a consultancy firm in the United States and
has been living there with his family for several years.
A case of murder has been registered at Srinivaspuri police station.
The police are waiting for Sanjeev and his wife to arrive, probably
on Monday, after which post-mortem would be conducted. "They
can tell us if any valuable is missing from the house," the
police officer added.