“She is suffering from starvation. It seems she has not consumed anything for the past four to five days. Her condition is serious and she has been kept under observation,” said the doctors on duty.

The police, meanwhile, are still groping in the dark to ascertain the reasons behind the death of Ranjit Kaur. With two bottles of liquor recovered from the room, preliminary investigations indicate that consuming excessive liquor could have caused her death.

A maternal uncle of the deceased from Amritsar has been informed. “We located the address of one of their maternal uncles and informed him about the incident. He will be here on Monday,” said a police officer while adding that the postmortem would be conducted after his arrival. The body has been kept at the mortuary in the Government Multi-Specialty Hospital, Sector 16.

Station House Officer Inspector Janak Rana said: “We have already initiated inquest proceedings under Section 174 of the CrPC and are waiting for the postmortem. The preliminary inquiry rules out any foul play since there is no injury mark on the body and the house was locked from inside.”

It was on receiving complaints of foul smell emanating from House Number 1184 in Sector 40 that the police reached the spot on Saturday. On breaking the doors, which were reportedly bolted from inside, the police found Jasbir in a unconscious state in one room. In the other room, the decomposed body of Ranjit Kaur was found.

One of the neighbours said: “One of the sisters was handicapped and never seen outside the house. Ranjit could be seen once or twice in a day. But for the past four to five days, we did not see them.”