60-year-old woman murdered at home in Thane, jewellery looted

A 60-year-old woman was brutally murdered at her residence in Maharashtra’s Thane district, with valuable jewellery looted from the premises, a senior police officer confirmed on Friday.

The victim, Rajni Patkar, was alone in her apartment at a housing complex in Kalyan when the attack took place on Thursday evening. As per PTI, police have stated that there were clear signs of forced entry, indicating that the assailants may have broken into the house before committing the crime.

According to PTI, Patkar was discovered in a pool of blood, and preliminary investigations suggest that she succumbed to fatal injuries at the scene. Among the stolen valuables were her mangalsutra and other pieces of jewellery, which were found to be missing from the residence, the police official added.

In a similar incident in February 2025, a 42-year-old woman was stabbed to death in public, allegedly by her neighbour over a financial dispute in Maharashtra’s Thane district, police said, as per PTI. The victim, identified as Seema Kamble, was attacked in the Barkupada area of Ambernath in the afternoon.

An official stated that Kamble had an ongoing dispute with her neighbour, Rahul Dingarkar, over money she had lent him. During a heated argument, Dingarkar allegedly pulled out a knife and stabbed Kamble multiple times, leading to her immediate collapse. She succumbed to her injuries soon after, according to PTI.

The police were alerted and promptly took the accused into custody. A case under Section 103 (murder) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) has been registered. Authorities have also begun recording statements from witnesses and local residents as part of their probe.

Meanwhile, in another legal development, a Thane court acquitted a 36-year-old woman accused of murdering her five-month-old son in December 2021. The woman had been charged with drowning her infant in a water drum, but the court ruled that there was insufficient evidence to prove her guilt, as per PTI.

The Principal District and Sessions Judge, S.B. Agrawal, delivered the judgment on January 20, clearing the woman of all charges. The prosecution had alleged that on December 24, 2021, the woman threw her baby into a water drum outside her home in Kalwa’s Saiba Nagar locality, resulting in his tragic death. However, the defence contended that there was no concrete evidence linking her to the crime.

Initially, the woman had reported to the police that her child had gone missing from the hammock where he was sleeping, claiming an unknown individual had abducted him. CCTV footage from the vicinity showed two unidentified women walking around at the time of the incident, but no connection was established between them and the disappearance of the infant. Eventually, the child`s body was discovered in a water drum outside a neighbour`s house, with an autopsy confirming drowning as the cause of death.

(With inputs from PTI)