A 33-year-old man allegedly stabbed his wife and her minor brother to death with a screwdriver in Shakarpur in east Delhi on Wednesday morning, fled the crime scene after the murders, but returned a few hours later and handed himself over to investigators, said police officers.
The suspect, Shriyansh Kumar, killed his wife, Kamlesh Holkar (30) and then turned to her brother, Ram Pratap Singh (17) because he had walked in on the murder, said officers.
Police said they are also probing if Kumar’s family was involved in the murder. The victims’ kin, meanwhile, said the 33-year-old used to torture Holkar for dowry. The couple had a two-year-old son.
An investigator said the suspect had lost his job, leaving him “upset and irritated” and suspected that she was involved in an extramarital relationship, even as his family claimed he was mentally ill. “We have not recovered any medical records substantiating the claim that he was mentally ill,” the officer said, but added that the suspect was “behaving strangely in police custody”.
Police said the control room received a call at 10.11am from an anonymous person in Shakarpur who reported a quarrel in his building that “had left some people injured”.
Officers reached the second floor of the two-storey house in the packed east Delhi residential colony and knocked its doors down to find bodies on the floor, caked in blood.
“Holkar’s body was in the bedroom and Singh’s body was in another room. Both bodies bore multiple wounds and had lost a lot of blood,” said an investigator. The exact sequence of events, however, is still unclear.
Officers were later informed that Holkar’s father-in-law (62) had made the first call to the police, even as his son was missing from the house.
“A screwdriver was found at the scene of crime and we suspect it was murder weapon. It has been sent to the forensics department,” said the investigator cited above.
Investigators examined the scene of the crime for two hours, recovered the bodies and sent them to the Sabzi Mandi mortuary, where they have been preserved for an autopsy.
During this time, officers also questioned Kumar’s family members and were told that the suspect, Holkar — who was a teacher — and their son used to live on the second floor. Kumar’s parents and grandparents lived on the first floor, said officers, adding that the suspect’s younger brother and wife had been living with them for two months.
“The suspect’s younger brother and wife were not at home when we were at the crime scene,” said an officer involved in the investigation. Kumar’s family informed police that the two got married three years ago.
“They often fought and didn’t get along,” said the second investigator cited above.
“The family initially gave us contradictory versions of the events that led to the incident, which made us suspicious. But so far, the role of other family members has not come to the fore,” the investigator said.
The officer added that the man’s family has not been let off the hook yet given that the woman’s family is still to be questioned.
The investigation took a twist just hours after it began.
Around noon, as officers went about their investigations in the two-room house, Kumar walked through the door and confessed to stunned officers. “He was apprehended and subsequently arrested,” said the investigator.
“He is unemployed, but used to work in the IT department of a Noida-based company at some point,” said the officer.
Police said Holkar’s brother Singh reached Delhi on April 14 to attend his nephew’s birthday on April 15 after completing his Class 12 exams.
Holkar’s cousin Gobind Baghel said Kumar fought with her on Tuesday and stormed out of the house. Baghel accused the suspect’s family of taunting her often and criticising her for “not bringing in enough dowry.”
