87-year-old woman robbed, killed in Mumbai

In yet another incident of violence against seniors, an 87-year-old woman was found dead inside her Vile Parle flat on Saturday, and valuables worth Rs3.63 lakh were missing. The police suspect that Prameela Ghodi died while struggling with the robbers as they tried to escape with the valuables.

Ghodi was a resident of the Shanti Niwas building. The family had clubbed two flats together and Ghodi’s son and his family stay in the flat next door, police said.

According to sources, the victim had dinner with her family at 10.30pm Friday, after which she went to her room. On Saturday morning, when the victim’s son Arun went up to pick up the newspaper and milk outside, he found the latches to her flat broken. He opened the door to his mother’s room and found her lying unconscious. The ornaments she usually wore were missing.

Arun called their family doctor, who declared her dead. The police was alerted and the body sent to Cooper Hospital for post mortem.

According to the preliminary medical report, while there were no external injury marks on her body, there was damage to her pancreas. The police suspect this could have happened while she was being pushed by the alleged robber. The police started questioning locals from the area. “We are investigating all possible angles,” said senior police inspector NJ Patil of Vile Parle police station.