Krishna Devi Arora was allegedly strangulated to death, police said.
Arora, who was childless, lived alone at the ground floor of her house following her husband's death last year while the first floor was given on rent.
She used to stay in touch with her nephew Chinnu, a grocery shop owner, who would usually have his lunch at her place.
"As he could not make it to her place today due to workload, he had sent his employee to collect tiffin box from her around 4 PM," a senior police official said.
Prime facie the motive behind the alleged attack appeared to be robbery as the victim's house was found ransacked, police said.
The police have constituted teams to crack the case and have initiated probe in the matter.