The Hindu : New Delhi News : Close relative arrested for Inderlok murders

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Aug 07, 2006

New Delhi

New Delhi

Close relative arrested for Inderlok murders

Staff Reporter

"Accused took cue from newly-released movie `The Killer'": Police

TRAPPED: Sanjay Babu (centre), accused of murdering the family members of Om Prakash in Inderlok on July 31, being produced at Chanakya Police Station in New Delhi on Sunday. Photo: Shiv Kumar Pushpakar

NEW DELHI: A 28-year-old man has been arrested by the Crime Branch of the Delhi police on charges of killing his uncle, aunt and their five children at Inderlok in North-Delhi on July 31. The police claim to have recovered Rs. 20,000 in cash from him.

The gruesome incident had come to light on July 31 morning when a neighbour saw smoke billowing out from the house of Om Prakash Rathore (45). The neighbour along with Om Prakash's nephew, Ashok, entered the house and discovered the bodies of Om Prakash, his wife Santosh, daughters, Manju, Preeti, Dolly and Puja, and son Anuj. Their throats had been slit.

Considering the sensitivity of the incident, Police Commissioner K.K. Paul directed the Crime Branch to investigate the case. At a press conference here on Sunday, he said teams comprising 10 Inspectors were assigned to follow different leads.

The police questioned Om Prakash's relatives and found that while most attended the cremation of the deceased, Santosh's nephew Sanjay had not turned up. The police tried to contact him on his mobile phone, which was found switched off. His family members too denied having any knowledge about his whereabouts.

Enquiries revealed that Sanjay along with his parents, a brother and two sisters used to live with Om Prakash in the Inderlok house a few years ago. However, due to some financial constraints Om Prakash reportedly threw them out. The police also found that Sanjay was involved in criminal activities and had been declared a proclaimed offender in an auto-theft case.

Suspecting his involvement, they mounted raids and traced him to Azadpur Mandi on Saturday afternoon. During interrogation, Sanjay allegedly confessed to his involvement and disclosed that he took a cue from the newly released movie "The Killer" while executing the murders.

He told the police that he could not forget the humiliation of having been thrown out of the Inderlok house by Om Prakash and nursed a grudge against him, though he kept meeting him regularly.

On July 26, he went to meet his aunt Santosh and saw her giving Rs. 50,000 to a relative. He learnt that Om Prakash was into money lending business and also, he had recently rented out a portion of the house against a good advance. Sanjay also believed that Om Prakash had kept a huge amount of money in his house.

During interrogation, Sanjay allegedly disclosed that on July 30 he again went to Inderlok around 10-30 p.m. He along with other members of the family watched television on the first floor for about an hour, after which Sanjay started complaining of uneasiness and asked Om Prakash to get him some medicine from the market. Minutes after Om Prakash left, Sanjay took Santosh to the ground floor on some pretext and slit her throat. He waited for Om Prakash and as he entered the house, Sanjay allegedly slit his throat too.

He then went upstairs, took a bath and had dinner with the children. When they asked about their parents, he said they had gone out to get something for him. Around 3 a.m., when the children were asleep, Sanjay allegedly decided to kill them one by one. He woke them up and asked them all barring Anuj, to go out of the room as he wanted to perform some rituals.

According to the police, Sanjay first killed Anuj, then called Manju inside. He asked her to hand over to him Rs. 5 lakhs that was kept in the house. She gave him Rs. 30,000, following which he murdered her, and then he butchered the other three in the same manner. Before fleeing, he allegedly tried to set the bodies of his uncle and aunt afire and tampered with the clothes of the children to mislead the police.

Sanjay has been remanded to seven-day police custody for recovery of the murder weapon and reconstruction of the scene of crime.

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