Wife of retired IPS officer found murdered in Hyderabad residence

HYDERABAD: The wife of a retired IPS officer was found murdered at her residence in Hyderabad on Friday morning. The deceased has been identified as Tanuja Ranjan (62), wife of Vinay Ranjan Ray, a 1986-batch IPS officer who retired as the Director General of Prisons in 2019.

Preliminary police investigations suggest the murder occurred during a targeted robbery orchestrated by the family’s domestic help, a Nepal native named Kalpana.

The incident took place in the early hours of Friday while Vinay Ranjan Ray was away in Bengaluru on personal business. At the time, Tanuja was at home with her two children. The crime came to light around 9:15 AM when another domestic worker arrived at the house. When the daughter, Sunanda, opened the door for the domestic worker, she noticed Kalpana was missing. The family conducted a search to discover Tanuja in her room, bound hand and foot with a cloth stuffed in her mouth. Although she was rushed to a nearby hospital, doctors declared her dead on arrival. The medical report indicates that death was caused by asphyxiation, noting visible injuries on her lips and wrists.

Police believe the murder was committed around 2:00 AM. According to authorities, Kalpana—who had been hired specifically to care for Vinay Ranjan’s elderly mother—facilitated the entry of the intruders.

CCTV footage recovered from the premises shows:

• 1:00 AM: Three unidentified men entering the residence.
• 2:30 AM: The suspects exiting the house carrying lethal weapons and a bag.

Further tracking revealed that the suspects took an auto-rickshaw to the Nampally Railway Station, where they reportedly boarded the Telangana Express heading toward Nagpur. Kalpana is currently at large, and police have launched a manhunt to apprehend the suspects.