In a horrific incident, a RAW official posted with the Cabinet Secretariat first hammered his wife and two children to death and then reportedly ended his life by hanging himself.The shocking incident was reported on Saturday afternoon by a relative of the official who was a Technical Officer with the Cabinet Secretariat.
The official, identified as Ananya Chakravarty (52) was living in Government flats in Sadiq Nagar area of South Delhi with his family.Senior Delhi Police officers reached the spot as the news of the grisly killing followed by suicide spread. The district crime team and forensic experts were summoned to examine the spot.
It is not clear what provoked Chakravarty to first kill his family and then himself. One of his relatives told the Investigating Officer that Chakravarty did ask one of his colleagues for the contacts of a psychiatrist denoting that he was suffering from some mental disorder.
Significantly, Chakravarty's wife, who worked as a music teacher at lady Irwin College (junior), had also called up the Defence Colony Police Station on Thursday and reportedly informed the police about a tiff with her husband.
Police officers visited the house and the issue was sorted out. However, the cops failed to comprehend that soon the "tiff" would explode in their faces in the form of a triple murder and a suicide.
According to police the incident came to light at around 3.45 pm when a relative's son went to the couple's house to meet them. He kept on ringing the bell but no one answered the door. Alarmed by this he called the police.
Police sources revealed that the relatives of Chakravarty's wife Jaishree had been calling from Kolkata but the couple did not pick up the phone. Worried, they made a call to their relative's son who went to the house to check on them.
The Police Control Room was informed at 3.47 pm. The call was made by one AN Chatterjee, a cousin of Chakravarty. Chatterjee later told the police that the relationship between the couple was tenuous and they used to quarrel quite often.
South district police officials immediately rushed to the spot. Police asked Anil Mandal the security guard of the colony to enter the house through the balcony of the house below as the door was locked from the inside. "I climbed up and broke the glass of the window. I tried to put my hand and open the latch but due to the grill failed to do so. The house was completely dark," said Mandal.
Police then broke open the door only to find Ananya Chakravarty hanging from the ceiling fan in the drawing room. The body of his wife Jaishree and daughter, Disha was found in one bedroom while his son Arnab lay in a pool of blood with his mouth taped in another room.
The daughter is a student of class VII and the son was studying in class XI in Kendriya Vidhyalaya. Arnab was a bright student and secured 95 per cent in class X. A blood soaked hammer and knife were recovered from the spot. Prima facie it appears to be a case of murder-cum-suicide. Police officials have sealed the spot and forensic teams have been called in to lift fingerprints.
"A case of murder has been registered. No foul play is noticed and no suicide note has been recovered. Further investigations are underway," said Deputy Commissioner of Police (South) BS Jaiswal.
"Strangely, the power lines were also detached and the mobile phones which lay near the bodies were switched off," said Nupur Pal, a neighbour. Sources revealed that Ananya had on Friday night rung up his colleague and asked him for the number of a psychiatrist.
"He was jolly in nature whereas his wife was an introvert but not arrogant. The family actively took part in all festival celebrations in the area and Jaishree was the secretary of the Durga Puja Committee of the colony. The couple had on Friday donated blood for a neighbour's relative in the locality," said a neighbour on the condition of anonymity. Neighbours also claimed that the maid had also come to the residence at around 2pm in the afternoon but left after no one opened the door. The children had attended school on Friday.