Police ‘round up’ suspects, but identify none in Amritsar mother-daughter murder

AMRITSAR:It has been more than 36 hours since the charred bodies of a 40-year-old government school clerk and her 20-year-old daughter were found at their house in Darshan Avenue here, but the police are yet to identify the accused in the double murder. Bodies were sent for postmortem to the civil hospital here on Wednesday afternoon and were later in the evening handed over to the brother of the woman, who is living in Jandiala town.

A senior police officer said, “As the girl, whose body was tied to a bed in a semi-naked state, was having periods, doctors could not tell us if she was raped or sexually assaulted. However, the board had collected blood samples of both the victims to be sent for chemical examination. We will come to know the cause of their death after the examination report.”

He said as the body of the mother was totally charred, her viscera samples have been sent for chemical examination.

He said, “We have rounded up more than a dozen people linked to the duo, directly or indirectly. We have also zeroed in on some people after getting phone call details of the victims. Our radar is on every suspect and we are hopeful that the killer will soon be nabbed.”

He said, “We have also been interrogating the staff of the school where the woman used to work as a clerk.”

Station house officer (SHO) Neeraj Kumar said, “We have handed over the bodies to the brother of the woman, who is living in Jandiala town.”

On Tuesday, the police had suspected it to be a case of robbery and a bid to molest them which proved fatal.

The incident came to light after residents of the locality saw flames rising from the house around 1am and called the police and the fire brigade. While the charred body of that woman was found in a room on the ground floor, the daughter’s body, which was tied with a cloth to a bed in a room on the first floor. It also had burn marks.

“When the fire brigade officials arrived, the main gate of the house was already open, which shows there was no forced entry.Things were found scattered, hinting at a robbery bid,” additional deputy commissioner of police (ADCP) Jagjit Singh Walia said on Tuesday. He also said the semi-naked body of the girl hinted that she might have been assaulted sexually.