Colonel’s mother bludgeoned to death at Ambala Cantt residence

AMBALA: An Army colonel’s mother was bludgeoned to death at her house in Ambala Cantonment’s Ajit Nagar Colony.

The 73-year-old victim’s body, with her hands and legs tied together and chilli powder smeared on her face, was found in a pool of blood on Thursday night.

The deceased Usha Singhal had been staying alone in the house, which is just 100 metre from a police station. The house had also been ransacked.

Police suspect loot to be the motive behind the murder. The victim appeared to have been strangulated and hit by a blunt object. Police are awaiting the postmortem and forensic reports before registering a case.

The victim’s son, Colonel Sandeep Singhal, is posted at Suratgarh in Rajasthan. He had last visited her on Monday.

A neighbouring family had been staying with her till Tuesday as their house was being renovated. When their contractor visited the woman’s house to keep some cement bags on Thursday, no one responded. When he told the neighbours about this, they visited the house and upon opening the door found the woman’s body. Family members said Usha wanted to rent out a portion of the house before moving to Suratgarh with his son as she did not want to keep it locked.

The victim’s husband, who worked for BSNL, had died 25 years ago. Her two daughters are married and live in Panchkula and Dehradun.