Thaindian News

New Delhi, March 8 (IANS) The 80-year-old mother of a lawyer, who appeared for dentist Rajesh Talwar facing trial for the murder of his teenaged daughter Aarushi in Noida, was found strangled at her Vivek Vihar house in east Delhi Tuesday, police said.

“Anna Mammen, mother of Rebecca John, was found dead in her C-12 house in Vivek Vihar around 4.30 p.m.,” said a senior police officer.

The domestic help and students of the victim, who worked as tutor for Class 10-12 students, were under the scanner, police said.

John represented Talwar in the Aarushi murder case in a court in Uttar Pradesh’s Ghaziabad.

The police said it seemed to be the work of someone close to the victim. The entry of the assailant was friendly and the house was found ransacked. Some articles were found missing from the house.

“Mammen was alone in her house when the incident took place. Some unidentified men strangled her with the wire of a mixer-grinder kept in the kitchen. Her body was found on a bed, with the legs hanging,” said the police officer.

“The victim might have resisted. Some injuries were found on her fingers,” said the officer.

The deceased was a retired teacher and was giving tuitions at her home to students of Class 10 and 12 in two batches.

The incident came to light when a security guard noticed that the rear door of Mammen’s house open. He alerted her tenants on the first floor.

“On entering the house the tenants found her strangled,” said the officer.

The victim has two sons one living in Australia and the other in the US. One of her sons left for the US in the morning.

“She was popular among students. She was an excellent English tutor. We came to know about the incident through security guards. It is unfortunate,” said a neighbour Sandeep.

The house is built on a corner plot with three open sides. Police suspect the assailants might have entered the house from the rear.

The body has been sent for post mortem and some people have been questioned, police said.

Fourteen-year-old Aarushi, a Class 9 student of Delhi Public School, Noida, was found murdered at her parents’ apartment in Noida May 16, 2008.

The family’s servant Hemraj was initially suspected for the killing but his body was found on the flat’s terrace a day later.

The Ghaziabad court ordered Feb 9 that the Talwars be charged with murder, destruction of evidence and criminal conspiracy.