Chennai: Elderly oncologist found dead at home

Chennai: A 67-year-old cancer specialist was found murdered in her sprawling bungalow near the hockey stadium on Gandhi Irvin Road in Egmore on Sunday with her hands and legs tied. The victim was identified as Dr Rohini Premakumari, known for the anti-cancer campaigns she ran among slum dwellers. Her family has roots in Kottyam, Kerala. Her body was found dumped on the lawn on the side of the house.

This is the second murder of aged women in their homes in the Egmore locality since March 5. A 72-year-old woman from Thrisoor was found murdered in an apartment in a suspected murder for gain on that day. Police are still groping in dark in that case.

Dr Rohini was found dead by one of her relatives on Sunday around 11 am. Police said no valuables were found missing from home. The victim, a widow, was living in the house with her mother, Dr Subadra Nair, 87, who is bedridden. Her daughter Reshmi Nanditha, 29, a computer professional working in a firm in OMR, visits the two occasionally.

On Saturday night Dr Rohini and her mother were at home with Reshmi out of the city on a vacation. “It appears the victim had scuffle with her assailant outside the house, on the grass. We found the broken spectacles of the victim on the lawn. There were also signs of a struggle on the lawn. The doctor may have been attacked while she went for her regular walk on the lawn at night,” the police said.

It was Subadra Nair who called her relative Parameswaran in Chetpet as her daughter failed to turn up in her room with her breakfast on Sunday morning, police said. Parameswaran found Dr Rohini dead with her hands and legs tied. She had also suffered a head injury. Though the front door of the house was intact, the back door was found open.

Police sources said that probe team had picked a bloodstained shirt and shorts from near the scene of crime. Police said the doctor had some ongoing issue with a contractor who did a job to fix the tiles in the house, which was built for her father, a pilot, at least 70 years ago. Her father had died in an air crash in Nagpur when she was one year old.  Her husband too had died when her daughter was just 4-years-old. “It is not clear if somebody is targeting the high value property. We are also trying to find out if there is any property dispute going on,” police added.