Back from drug rehab, 25-year-old kills four family members

Accused planned murders after a quarrel with parents, say officers; bodies found with stab injuries; relatives say he had past crime record, police probing previous cases

Back home after spending six months at a drugs de-addiction centre in the city, a 25-year-old man killed his parents, grandmother and sister at their house following a quarrel allegedly over his “job status”, in south-west Delhi’s Palam on Tuesday night. The accused, Keshav, was overpowered by his relatives and handed over to the police, officers said.

During interrogation, the accused allegedly told the police that he was working at a company in Gurugram and used to live with his father Dinesh, a driver at a private firm, mother Darshan, a caretaker at a city-based hospital, 22-year-old sister Urvashi, who had recently completed her degree in Physiotherapy from a private college, and his 75-year-old grandmother, Deevano Devi.

DCP (South West) Manoj C. said they received a PCR call around 10.30 p.m. on Tuesday regarding a scuffle at a house in Palam. A police team reached the spot and found the bodies of four family members inside the house. The accused was arrested from the spot and a case under Section 302 (murder) of the Indian Penal Code was lodged at the Palam police station.

The officers said the parents were found dead with stab injuries inside the washroom of the house, the grandmother’s body was found on the bed inside a room and the sister’s body was lying in the kitchen in a pool of blood. Sources said the grandmother was probably smothered to death and subsequently stabbed by the accused.

DCP Manoj said preliminary investigation suggests the crime was committed after Keshav had a quarrel with his parents and grandmother over him not having a stable job. “We have taken three-day custody of the accused. He [Keshav] was completely sober at the time of the arrest; he has not revealed anything concrete so far. We have recovered the knife used to commit the crime,” the DCP said.

He added that the accused has only disclosed that he used to have frequent fights with his family members. On Tuesday morning, after another heated argument, he allegedly decided to kill them. “Keshav has previous crime record. He was booked in two theft cases for which he was imprisoned… We are verifying his criminal records and whether he had any accomplices. He can speak in English and is a graduate,” the DCP said.

According to sources, only the grandmother was at home when the accused arrived around 5 p.m. “Prima facie, it seems, Keshav first smothered his grandmother with a pillow and left her body on the bed. After that he killed his father and mother who came home from work around two to three hours later; around 10 p.m., he stabbed the sister who returned home and tried to raise an alarm after seeing the bodies. It seems like a pre-planned murder,” an officer said.