In a gruesome incident, 22-year-old Harmit Singh allegedly hacked to death four members of his family —father, step-mother, pregnant sister and her three-year-old child on Thursday night. The incident, rare in the annals of the police history of the State capital, occurred in Adarshnagar, Ballupur, Dehradun.
In the incident, eight- year-old Kamal was seriously injured. He was admitted in a hospital. Harmit is alleged to have committed the crime along with three or four unidentified people.
However, police have not confirmed this. Police have arrested Harmit as the prime suspect.
State Director General of Police BS Sidhu, ADGP (law and Order) Ram Singh Meena, DIG Garhwal Range, Sanjay Gunjyal, SSP Rautela and other police officers rushed to the spot and inspected the site. local MlA Harbans Kapur and other public representatives also rushed to the crime site. The homicide investigation squad collected evidence from the crime scene while the bodies were sent for
postmortem.
The deceased have been identified as 60-year-old Jai Singh, 55-year-old Kulwant Kaur, 24-year-old Harjeet Kaur and three-year-old child Sukhmani. Eight-year-old child Kamal was seriously injured. He is now being treated in a hospital.
DGP Sidhu said that police are working on several angles. It seems prima facie that property dispute prodded the murder of four family members. However, we have kept all angles open, he said adding that the suspect Harmit is being interrogated.
SSP Ajay Rautela addressed the media on Friday evening and claimed to have solved the case by arresting Harmit. He said that Harmit had confessed his crime and said that he had hacked to death his four family members. Being the step- son he was being ill- treated by the family members, he averred. He did not kill his nephew Kamal because he loved him. He said he had threatened Kamal not to disclose anything and also asked him to say when questioned that three/ four unidentified persons had committed the murders.
Based on Harmit’s information, police had recovered a knife from his possession. Police, however, were tight-lipped over the role of his mother in the crime. SSP Rautela said that a written complaint has been received from Ajit Singh, nephew of Jai Singh and a case under section 302 and 307 of IPC was registered in the Cantt police station.
Meanwhile, the domestic help reached the house in the morning. She informed the relatives of the deceased who later informed police. locals were in state of shock over the incident. Relatives alleged that Jai Singh’s divorced wife was behind the murder. She might have sent some goons to murder Jai Singh and his family members and Harmit Singh might have assisted the criminals to commit the crime, they said.
Jai Singh was operating advertisement agency at Paltan Bazaar (Naharwali Gali). Police had recovered CCTV camera and its footage is being reviewed.
Jai Singh had married twice. It is learnt that one of his wives had secured divorce. There was no child from his first wife. Jai Singh was living along with his first wife Kulwant Kaur. From the divorced wife, Singh had two sons. While one of the sons Harmit Singh was living with Jai Singh another is living with his mother who was living in Saharanpur (Uttar Pradesh) as per the Court’s order.
Earlier, Jai Singh had adopted his nephew Ajit Singh’s daughter Harjeet Kaur alias Hanni who was later married in Yamunanagar, Haryana. She had two children, one eight- year- old son Kamal and another three- year- old daughter Sukhmani. Harjeet Kaur was pregnant for around nine months. Kaur had recently come to Jai Singh’s home. She was supposed to deliver in a day or two.
locals said that the domestic help had reached the house around 7.45 am and rang the bell. She was asked by Harmit to return home as the house had no water and all the family members were asleep. She, however, found something amiss. She went to the house where Jai Singh’s nephew Ajit Singh is living. She informed Ajit that Harmit had not allowed her to enter. When Ajit Singh rang up Jai Singh Harmit took the call and said there was no water in the house. Ajit scolded Harmit and asked him to let the maid in.
When Ajit along with the domestic help got in a little later they found the floors splattered with blood. Police were informed and senior police officers rushed in. The bodies were later recovered.
It was found in course of police investigation that the necks of all the deceased were slashed with knives. The body of Jai Singh was found lying in the washroom while his wife’s body was found lying just outside the bed room. The bodies of Harjeet and her daughter were found lying on the beds.
The preliminary investigation revealed that Jai Singh might have resisted the criminals. Walls of at least three rooms and the washroom were found stained with blood. liquor bottles and glasses were found on the table.