A retired Army lieutenant, believed to be mentally ill, went on a killing spree for two hours in Palwal on Tuesday bludgeoning six persons to death with a rod, police said.
The accused, Naresh Dhankhad (45), went on the rampage between 2am and 4am in a two-km stretch between Agra Chowk and Camp Colony, taking advantage of low visibility due to dense fog.
His first victim was a woman, Anjum, who was an attendant of a person admitted in the ICU on the second floor of a private hospital in Palwal.
Anjum was sleeping on the second floor where the accused managed to gain entry, said Palwal Superintendent of Police Sulochana Gajraj. He then went on killing five others on streets.
A resident of Macchgar near Ballabhgarh, Dhankhad also attacked the policemen when they tried to catch him.
The accused had joined the Army in 1999 as a lieutenant and taken retirement on medical grounds in 2003. He then joined the Haryana Agriculture department as an assistant development officer in 2006, a police spokesperson said.
He was working as a sub-divisional officer with the Health Department.
The hospital incident was recorded on a CCTV camera and the accused can be seen wearing trousers, a sweater and carrying the rod while gaining entry to the victim’s room. He then went to Agra Road intersection where he killed three more people. Then a little farther, he killed two others by repeatedly hitting them on the head with the rod.
As soon as the police received the information about the killer they started evacuating people, who were either sleeping or working outside, indoors to safe places, said the Palwal SP.
She said checkpoints were set up in the town, which is 80-km from Delhi. “When we zeroed in on him, he was searching for another target and almost had his seventh victim as he had injured him,” the SP added. Dhankhad was arrested around 7 am when he was roaming in a street near a private hospital in Palwal, the SP said, adding that thick fog in the town had reduced visibility making it easy for the accused to target the victims.
Dhankar tried to resist arrest and even assaulted the policemen before being overpowered, she said.
The SP said Dhankar appeared to be mentally ill. However, doctors will be able to throw more light on this, she added.
“He appeared to be mentally-ill and looked highly aggressive. Preliminary investigations have revealed that he had strained relations with his wife and two children,” she said.
She said the accused, who has been booked on murder charge, was referred to the civil hospital at Faridabad. His psychological evaluation would be carried out.
Deputy Superintendent of Police Abhimanyu lohan said prima facie it seemed that he carried out the killings without a reason.
A high alert was sounded in the city, the police spokesperson said.
The spokesperson said Dhakhad got married 10 years ago and separated from his wife four years later. Dhankad was the youngest of five brothers.
His brother, Chandrapal, claimed that Dhankhad was mentally-ill and was being treated by a doctor in Muradnagar, the spokesperson said. He claimed his brother had completed MSc from Haryana Agriculture University in Hisar where he was one of toppers.
A doctor at the hospital at Faridabad where the accused was brought by police told reporters that he was unconscious at the time he was wheeled in.
The neighbours at the place, where the former Army officer lived, told reporters that he did not like to interact much and preferred to be alone.