Retired teacher found murdered

A 78-year-old retired school vice-principal was found murdered at his residence in Northwest Delhi’s Bharat Nagar on Sunday morning.

The victim, Pratap Singh Dahiya, was alone at his house at the time of the incident, suspected to have taken place on Saturday night or on the early hours of Sunday. For the past few months, he was staying alone in the house as his wife is currently on a visit to United States where his children live with their families.

While family members of the deceased said the entire house was ransacked and valuables were missing from the house, the police suspect the assailants had a friendly entry into the house.

Mr Dahiya’s daughter Seema told that it was the domestic help employed at the house who suspected something amiss when she reported for work but no one answered the door.

“She went inside only to find the entire house ransacked and my father lying in the storeroom with his limbs tied and blunt injuries on his head. There were also ligature marks around his neck to suggest he was strangulated as well,” said Seema.

The maid conveyed the information to Seema, who lives with her husband nearby. Seema and her husband Surendra Khatri visited the house and then informed the police.

“We observed that there were signs of scuffle on the stairs to suggest that her father was dragged down from the first floor and then killed,” said Seema.

The Satyawati Colony house where the victim was murdered is a single storey house and according to family members, Dahiya would rarely come down and spend most of his time on the first floor rooms.

Seema last spoke to Dahiya on Saturday morning.

The police has registered a case of murder and voluntarily causing hurt in committing robbery and claimed that they have clues about the suspects whose entry into the house “appears to be friendly.”

“Certain clues are there and the police is working on those clues. The police has rounded up few persons,” said deputy commissioner of police Vijay Singh.

Dahiya, a former schoolteacher, worked for a government school in Keshav Puram retiring as its vice principal a few years ago. Seema said barring her, all other siblings live in the US.