Udaipur Police have cracked the shocking double murder case within a week. Investigations into the identification, motive and timelines leading to the murder and the final confession by the murderer(s) took all of 6 days and subsequent arrests were made.

The Udaipur Superintendent of Police, Bhuwan Bhushan Yadav, in his address to the media confirmed that the assailant in the double murder case was a lady named Maria, belonging to the Dawoodi Bohra community in Udaipur. She is the daughter-in-law of the third sister of the two deceased elderly women. 

On October 27, two elderly ladies, both sisters, Sara Bai and Hussaina Bai were discovered brutally murdered at their residence situated at Diamond Colony in Navratna Complex by unidentified assailants. The murder seemed to have happened in the afternoon when the ladies were praying. After the watchman raised the alarm, the police arrived at the scene and noticed two bodies face down on the floor. There were injury marks on the body and post mortem confirmed murder.

Giving further disclosures on the matter, the SP said that subsequent to receiving the complaint from Dr. Shabbir Bahar a relative of the deceased and inspections by a police team led by IG (Udaipur Range) Ajay Pal Lamba and SP Bhuwan Bhushan on the scene of crime, a team was formed.

The investigations began with sealing of CCTV footage of within 5km radius of the scene of the murder (Diamond Colony). History Sheeters of the area and those of Bohrawadi area were rounded up and interrogated. Servants, neighbors, family members of the watchman of the house of the deceased, relatives of the labourers working around the house, and relatives of the deaceased were intensely interrogated, but the Police could not gather much information that could lead to the murderer. 

Subsequently, members of the Dawoodi Bohra Community appealed to the administration and police to act swiftly on the case and also put forth their concern that over a period of last two years, many thefts have been taking place in residential colonies where the majority of residents were Dawoodi Bohras. The IG (Udaipur Range) instructed the entire department to dive deep into the case and get it resolved immediately.

Further investigations, questioning and delving deeper, the fingers pointed to a woman Maria wife of Mustansir Bohra, aged 32 years belonging to Salumber. Maria presently stays at Matwadi near Mewar Hospital in Navratan Complex, which is approximately 3km from the house of the deceased, who were her Mother In Laws Sister. She was detained and arrested before she left for Kuwait. The accused's husband resides in Kuwait. On interrogation, it was discovered that Maria used to invest in the Share Market and had suffered a loss amounting to Rs 30 Lakh. To recover the losses, Maria murdered the two woman and went away with their jewelry and cash.

Maria is the wife of Mustansir, who is the son of Zubeida, the third sister of Sara Bai and Hussaina Bai. She confessed that she frequently visited the house of the deceased when their househelp and watchman were away on holiday during Navratri. She used to help the ladies in domestic chores on requests from Husaina bai or her son Saifi, and even used to drive their Santro car if the errands so demanded. Police are interrogating Maria using psychological techniques, to establish the involvement of other people in the crime. Investigations will continue once the accused is presented in court and a police remand is secured...keep reading below video for details on the modus operandi...

Details of Police Press Conference held at 4:30pm on Ambamata Police Station, Udaipur:

Modus Operandi

The accused, as per Police, had her eyes on the jewelry held by Sara Bai and Husaina Bai. Nearly 15-20 days before committing this heinous crime, Maria had prepared a meal for the two ladies and added sleeping pills in the dish so that the elderly women would doze off and she could steal the jewelry. However, the presence of the housemaid and her three children did not allow Maria to steal the jewelry, even after the two women had fallen asleep due to the sleeping pills. On 23 October, when the housemaid and her family left for their Navratri holidays, Maria took responsibility of the entire house and offered to do the daily chores in the house. Maria had also bought grocery for Hussaina Bai on 25 October.

Maria again went to the house on 26 October and after removing her Burqaa (Rida), went up to the first floor in her lowers and T-Shirt and carried an Iron Rod with her.  When she entered the living room, Hussaina Bai was watching TV. She entered silently and had her face covered. She attacked Hussaina Bai by holding her mouth from the back and attempting to strangle her. Hussaina Bai, in an effort to save herself, used her hands frantically and this led to the cover on Maria's face fall off, leading to her identification by Hussaina Bai. To ensure that her identity is not revealed, she hit Hussaina Bai on her head with an iron rod, killing her immediately. She took off the jewelry worn by Hussaina Bai and also collected all the jewelry from the cabinets in the house.

While she was fleeing from the room, the other sister, Sara Bai, who happened to be staying with Hussaina Bai, opened the door of her room and stepped out. Maria attacked Sara Bai as well and after covering her mouth, hit her on the head with the iron rod, killing her as well. She then fled with the jewelry and on 27 October, even took a loan from a Bank by keeping the jewelry as security.

Maria returned to the house on 27 October with a can of petrol and attempted to set fire to the carpet on the ground floor, so that the house goes up in flames and the death of the two elderly sister can be attributed to fire in the house. However, the carpet did not burn as desired, and the watchman happened to arrive that same day and raised the alarm. It was the watchman who told the police that he had seen Maria leaving the house on 27 October. Maria used to visit the house when the police were conducting their investigation and also used to greet the police with folded hands everytime. When the police got the information of her being in the house, and that she was leaving for Kuwait on 1 November, the police took action and arrested her from her residence in Navratan Complex on 1 November.

The Above Information is based on the details shared by the Udaipur Police vide a Press Conference held on 2 November at Ambamata Police Station.

More Updates as we receive them from the Police.