A 42-year-old man bludgeoned his father-in-law, and two brothers-in-law to death at his in-laws’ house in North East Delhi’s Nand Nagri.
Two more relatives were seriously injured in the incident in the wee hours of Tuesday when they all were sleeping on the terrace of their house.
The accused Rajesh spared his 14-year-old son Vineet who was also sleeping with the victims. Police are speaking to the minor to know about the incident. Sources said, the boy has confessed to the police about the involvement of his father in the killing spree which lasted for a few minutes.
The deceased are identified as Ram Kishen, 60, Raju, 26, and Kiranpal, 36, while the injured are Tarun, 28, Karan, 17. Ram Kishen was a retired MCD employee, while Raju and Kiranpal used to work as sweeper and guard respectively.
After the act, Rajesh jumped off from the second floor balcony of the house in a bid to run away from the scene and fractured his leg. He was caught a few metres away from the house by the local people and handed over to the police.
A resident of Alwar, Rajasthan Rajesh is a carpenter by profession. He is married to Rakhi, the daughter of Ram Kishen and has two sons Vineet and Aditya, 11. On Monday, Rajesh had come to Delhi from Alwar with his son Vineet without informing his wife.
As his wife was searching for her husband, his parents told her that Rajesh has come to Delhi with their elder son. In the evening, Rakhi also came to Delhi with her younger son Aditya and joined her husband.
“On Monday we had a feast at home with many of our relatives joining us,” said Kuldeep, grandson of deceased Ram Kishen. After having dinner, some relatives returned home while others went up to the terrace to sleep.
“Around, 1.30 am we heard a loud thump. We woke up fearing if someone might have fallen off from the terrace,” Kuldeep said. “When we came out, we saw Rajesh lying on the ground. He then rose up and started running towards the park,” he added.
Someone then shouted about several bodies lying on the terrace, and people started chasing Rajesh. He was caught a few hundred metres away from the house, and handed over to the policemen of a PCR van stationed nearby.
Family members of the deceased alleged that Rajesh had made his victims unconscious by having them sniff some intoxicating substance. He then bludgeoned them with sticks and a grindstone lying on the terrace.
“We suspect that he used some intoxicating substance on the victims as no one did make any noise while being bludgeoned with grind stone and sticks. We suspect that it was a pre-planned killing,” said a member of the family.
Rajesh’s relatives said that although he didn’t betray any signs of abnormal behaviour. However, ever since he had arranged the wedding of his sister-in-law with a known person in March this year, he had been tense.
Relatives alleged that he was perhaps unhappy with less amount of dowry being paid to the groom by deceased Ram Kishen. Police however refused to speculate on the reason of the murders.
“Investigation is at an early stage right now. We are waiting to be able to grill Rajesh who is in hospital right now. He did arrange wedding of his sister-in-law with one of his known person. Whether it was the reason of murders or not is a matter of investigation,” said Ajit Singla, Deputy Commissioner of Police (North East).
