Wife of a retired IAS officers, who held the post of district magistrate of Rae Bareli and commissioner of Prayagraj division, was murdered and ornaments and other household belongings were looted from their Sector 20, Indira Nagar house under Ghazipur police station area on Saturday morning, sending the Lucknow police in a tizzy.
Senior police officers, including Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime) Akash Kulhari, inspected the crime scene and were monitoring the investigation. Later, Lucknow’s commissioner of police also inspected the crime scene.
Giving details to newsmen at the crime scene, the JCP said the woman, Mohini Dubey, was the second wife of retired IAS officer Devendra Nath Dubey. “Dubey had gone to play golf and he had left the house around 7:15 am. Around 10 am, he returned and found the doors lying ajar. He thought Mohini would be in the kitchen and went there but did not find her there. He later went to a room and found Mohini lying dead,” the police officer said. He said Mohini was strangled to death by the unidentified assailant(s).
He further said Dubey wrote in the complaint about loot of ornaments and other household belongings. “The miscreants took away the DVR of the CCTV from the scene,” the JCP said.
He said the exact cause of death would be ascertained by autopsy and the body had been sent for post-mortem.
He said Dubey had employed two drivers, servants, a gardener and a maid for household work. “Their maid usually comes at around 8 am but she was on leave on Saturday. The milkman supplying milk at the house visited around 7 am on Saturday. The crime scene was scanned by the forensic team and fingerprint experts. The milk which the milkman had given was put in a utensil and was unboiled,” he said.
Sources said the fingerprints lifted from the scene of crime were found to be of different persons, giving credence to the suspicion of involvement of more than two persons in the crime. They said the police were probing the maid’s credentials and also if she really needed leave.
“It is strange that so many staff were present at the house and the miscreants executed the crime,” the sources said.
The JCP said it was basically an open ended case for police and they were probing it from all possible angles.
“We are at the start of the investigation and can’t tell exactly the number of miscreants involved in the crime, the motive behind the murder and the brain behind the murder,” he said.
The officer said Mohini was Dubey’s second wife and they had no children.
“Dubey has two children from his first wife. One of them lives in Noida while the other stays in Lucknow but not at this address,” he said. He said Dubey along with Mohini and their staff were staying at the house.
Dubey retired in 2009 and he had married the second time with Mohini in 2007, two years before his retirement. His family was non-committal in endorsing his second marriage.
