Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): It was the evening of December 1, 2012. Bhopal was in the grip of severe cold. Roads in the Koh-e-Fiza area in the city were hardly busy because of the chilling cold.
A woman Meera Ahuja, in her forties, was working in the city circle office of the Central Region of the Power Distribution Company, just a few hundred metres off the Koh-e-Fiza police station. She was alone in her office room, counting cash collected from power consumers.
As she was engrossed in her work, she did not know what was awaiting her.
Just then an unidentified man shot into the office, carrying a knife. With the blink of an eye, she attacked the woman, pinned her to the ground, slashed her throat, and made off with Rs 2 lakh.
The woman yelled for help from her colleagues working in other rooms. When they went to the room to see what happened, they saw her lying in a pool of blood.
Immediately after the incident, they took her to a hospital where they put her in an elevator.
More than 12 years have passed since the bloody murder took place. But the police remained clueless about the murderer.
Many of Ahuja’s colleagues, witnesses to the bone-chilling incident, either retired or were shifted from the office.
One of her colleagues said, “Meera was alone at the cash counter office. Other employees were in different rooms. We were shocked as Meera was bleeding profusely with a deep cut in her throat. The floor of the cash counter was speckled with blood. I was among those who took her to a nearby hospital. She was alive when we took her inside an elevator. Just as we took her out of the lift, she tumbled to the floor.”
“I can still remember she was wearing her gold chain, which was now stained with blood,” her colleague said.
The police suspect that the assailant scaled the boundary wall to escape. The weapon may have been a double-edged knife. Professional criminals generally use such weapons.
The police reopened the case several times. They quizzed around 700 people but failed to hit upon a clue about the murderer.
The police also sifted through thousands of call details and a few CCTV footages. They also re-enacted the crime scene. Still, all their efforts fell through. The police declared a cash reward of Rs 1, 00,000. Yet, the cops groped in the dark.
A police officer said, “The cops rounded up many people with criminal records in Bhopal and its neighbouring districts and grilled them.” But the real culprit eluded the cops.
The cash counter, where the criminal polished off the woman, has been turned into a storeroom. When Ahuja was murdered, her son was a minor. Her brother-in-law Jeevant Ahuja held a press conference a year later.
Ahuja’s family demanded a CBI probe into the case. Yet it never happened.
