Four people, including a 16-year-old boy, have been apprehended for the sensational triple murder of a married woman and her two children, according to police. They had robbed the family of cash and jewellery and then murdered them in West Delhi’s Raghubir Nagar area, said police. The prime accused, identified as Akram (21), was close to the family and belonged to the same village which the victim’s husband — who was a jeans dealer — is a native of, said Joint Commissioner of Police (South-West) Dependra Pathak.
Akram worked at a jeans factory nearby and roped in Shahid (24), who worked as a tailor in the same factory. Shahid later roped in Manjoor (30) and the juvenile, said Pathak.
According to police, on late September 20, the group first attempted robbery in the locality but failed. Then they targeted the victim’s family, as Akram knew that the woman’s husband would be in Jaipur, where he usually went every weekend to sell jeans at the local market.
They went there with a box of sweets, which were laced with sedatives, and offered them to the woman, Shabnam, and her five children, so that they could easily carry out their plan without any resistance.
“During interrogation, they revealed that they were determined about killing Shabnam, as she would have told police everything, but killing any of the children were out of question,” said a police official.
After allegedly robbing the family of cash and silver jewellery, which are yet to be recovered by the police, the accused tied Shabnam’s limbs with a thin rope and attacked with a screw driver.
Meanwhile, her son Imran (8) and daughter Khushnaseeb (7) woke up. The accused allegedly strangled both to death, while three other children remained asleep in the same room, said the official.
For quite a long time, it was the landlord of the house, in which the triple murder took place, remained the prime suspect in the case. But investigation took a new turn when a police team was sent to Shabnam’s husband Zafar’s native village Kasganj in UP and they questioned Akram’s father, who happened to be the witness to Shabnam and Zafar’s marriage, said the official.