The bodies of Satish Chand Jain, 60, a retired employee of the External Affairs Ministry and his wife Urmila Jain, 55, were found at around 10.30 by their servant, Prema. The door to the flat had been left ajar.

While the body of Satish Chand Jain was found strangled on the living room sofa, the body of Urmila Jain was found in the bedroom with her face covered with blood. She had been battered on the head with a heavy object and then strangled. The body of Satish Jain also had wounds indicating that he had been hit before being strangled. The house had an iron grill door and there was no evidence of forced entry.

Anil Jain, a relative of Jains said: ``The servant entered the house and saw Satish Jain lying on the sofa. She thought he was sleeping and tried to wake him. Then she realized that something was wrong and went to the bedroom where she found Urmila Jain. Then she called the neighbours. We were informed some time later.''

``When we went in we found all the lights, fans and the cooler on,'' said P.K. Diwang, a neighbour.

Satish Chand Jain had retired three years ago as a section officer from the Ministry of External Affairs. Earlier, he had been posted to Canada. Two of his children, Rakesh 28, and Meenu, 26, have settled down there. Their eldest son, Chandresh, 30, had been living with the couple. However, he was away to Ferozabad since yesterday afternoon to attend a marriage.

Neighbours say that Chandresh was a computer engineer. ``He had studied abroad and had returned. He was doing a business in Noida but had not been working for the past two months,'' said Diwang.

The neighbours claim to have noticed nothing unusual. Diwang said that he had been away on a vacation with his family and had returned only on June 27. ``We hadn't had a chance to meet after we returned.'' ``They were a couple who kept very much to themselves,'' said a neighbour. ``We rarely saw them outside the house. Satish Jain only used to step out of the house to go to the mandir. They were a very religious couple.''

DCP (North West) Satyendra Garg said it was most likely that the murderer(s) were known to the couple and had been with them for some time before committing the murder.

``It seems that the person or persons were with the couple for some time. It is possible that the lady then retired to the bedroom for the night while her husband continued to entertain the guests. After some time the assault was carried out.''