The police suspect the involvement of an acquaintance in the murder. The assailants stabbed Nirmala with a kitchen knife in the neck and stomach and decamped with the ornaments she was wearing.

According to the police, there were no signs of forced entry in the house and the robbers had apparently entered from the main entrance. ``The fact that the lady never opened the door to a stranger indicates the involvement of a person who was known to the family,'' said a relative.

Nirmala's mother-in-law and three children were away to Delhi when the incident took place.

The police said that the woman was murdered between 1 and 3 p.m. as her mother-in-law had spoken to her on phone at around 1 p.m.

``But the phone kept on ringing when she called up again at 3,'' said a cop.

The deceased was the wife of Krishan Dev, the younger brother of Gopi Chand Gehlot, a prominent local leader. Krishan had died couple of years ago and since then Nirmala was living with her three children and mother-in-law at their Sector 14 residence.