The case of 23-year-old school teacher Naina, who was suspected of being murdered in an ‘honour killing” case by her family members in 2016, tuned on its head, investigation by Delhi Police Crime Branch revealed that her family members, including her father, mother and brother were murdered on the same day on July 15, however their bodies were never found.
The startling revelation was made when Crime Branch sleuths arrested one of the accused Abhishek Pal (26). The accused confessed that he had sought help of one Mannu to kill the family that lived in Wazirabad area of North Delhi.
On July 16, 2016, the body of deceased Naina was found from a canal in Hapur, Uttar Pradesh. Her family members, father Ved Prakash, mother Sadhana, and brother Shubham could not be traced by the UP police, so they suspected that the family was absconding after killing her. “Hence, a case of murder was registered against the family members of the deceased Naina,” the Additional Commissioner of Police (Crime) Dr AK Singla said.
Abhishek Pal was arrested from Outer Ring Road with a country made pistol. The accused revealed that he along with Sonu, the nephew of Ved Prakash and a juvenile murdered the entire family and threw their bodies in the same canal in which Naina’s body was found in. However, their bodies were never recovered.
Abhishek confessed that he was well-acquainted with Ved Prakash and his family, and was even teaching driving to his son Shubham. “His close friend Ritesh Katiyar was an employee of Ved Prakash at his garment shop in Majnu ka Tila. Later on, Ved Prakash transferred his business to Ritesh on rent, but the business failed and he took a loan from Ved Prakash with Abhishek Pal as the guarantor. However, Ritesh could not pay back the loan and Ved Prakash was regularly pressurizing Abhishek Pal and Ritesh for his payments,” Singla said.
Abhishek confided this with his friend Sonu, the nephew of Ved Prakash. Meanwhile, Sonu was also searching for an opportunity to grab his uncle’s business and property and instigated Abhishek to eliminate Ved Prakash and lured him for a share in his property and business. They roped in Mannu who was only 16 years old then in their plan, Singla revealed.
“On July 2016 at about 11:00-11:30 am Abhishek called Ved Prakash stating that the tyres of Shubham’s car had to be changed. When he came to meet him, they made him sit in the front seat and Mannu strangulated him with a clutch wire while Abhishek drove the car. Growing suspicious that Shubham saw the accused persons leaving with his father, at around 2-3 pm the same day he was murdered,” said the Additional CP.
“Sadhana, the wife of Ved Prakash saw them taking with Shubham so they murdered her too using the same clutch wire. And finally at around 9 pm the same day, they murdered the last remaining member of the family, Naina. The next day all the bodies were moved to a closed public school in Wazirabad area in order to transfer the bodies from one car to another. Thereafter, the same night, Abhishek along with Mannu took all the bodies in Ved Prakash’s Santro car (whose keys they recovered from Naina’s pocket) and dumped them in a canal in Hapur, UP. The next day, only Naina’s body was spotted by locals and recovered by UP Police,” said the Additional CP.