Eyewitnesses and official reports said Nilofer's husband, Shahbaz Mustaffa Khan, had left their fourth-floor house in Shivlal Motilal Building on D B Marg sometime in the afternoon along with his friend, Narendra Khanna, for another friend's house with whom they were supposed to have lunch. When Khan returned home around 9.30 pm he found the door of his flat locked and his wife not responding to the door bell. He was worried because Nilofer never went to sleep so early, nor had she said anything about going out.

A neighbour said Khan looked very worried when he came to his house to fetch a duplicate key which the Khans kept with him. "He told me that Nilofer was not responding to the door bell...he was sure there was something wrong,"the neighbour said. He then accompanied Khan to his flat. When they opened the door Nilofer was lying in a pool of blood. "The sight was so horrifying. Blood everywhere...on the floor, on her clothes. Khan just collapsed on the floor," the neighbour said, adding that the killer had slit open her throat with a sharp weapon after tying her hands and legs with a rope.

Senior inspector R A Sheikh of the Nagpada police station said: "We have yet to arrive at a conclusion. The motive could be robbery or an old enmity. There is every possibility that the killer removed the jewellery from the victim's body to mislead the police." Neighbours, however, find it difficult to believe that Khans could have any enemies. "They never had any quarrels with anybody. They were, in fact, so nice to everyone," said a neighbour.

Khan was Nilofer's second husband and was 10 years younger to her. She had divorced her first husband some fourteen years back and had got married to Khan soon after. Nilofer had a son from her firstmarriage who was not staying with them.

It is not yet clear how the killer gained entry into the flat, police said.