Gurugram murders: 'Accused killed daughter-in-law, tenant over affair, pending rent'

Gurugram, Aug 25 (IANS) In a breakthrough in the case in which a retired armyman allegedly killed three members of his tenant's family and his daughter-in-law in Gurugram's Rajendra Park area, the prime accused Rao Rai Singh has made a crucial disclosure before the police.

A highly placed source within the police told IANS that the prime accused disclosed before the police that he was enraged over the alleged illicit relationship between his daughter-in-law Sunita (32) and tenant Krishan Tiwari (41). Also, Krishan owed around Rs 60,000 to the accused as he had not paid his house rent since January.

"These were the two sole reasons confessed by the accused before the police that there were constant quarrels at home for two years and the tenant was neither vacating the residence nor withdrawing from the alleged relationship," sources said.

The sources said the accused's wife had also accompanied him on the incident day but did not participate in the actual act. The accused had also revealed to the police that earlier in January he had seen his daughter-in-law and tenant in a compromising position and again on August 21 and since then he was looking for an opportunity to commit the crime.

This opportunity came in the wee hours on Tuesday when the culprit's son Anand Yadav was out of the city on August 23 on a trip to Khatu Shyam in Rajasthan.

"Following his plan and on early hours on Tuesday (August 24), Singh had first murdered his daughter-in-law Sunita Yadav, who was sleeping on the first floor and then went to the second floor, broke upon the tenant's room and killed the tenant Krishan Tiwari, his wife Anamika, their daughter Surbhi with a sharp weapon. Vidhi, the minor daughter of the tenant, was also attacked but she survived.

"Seeing her husband dead, Krishan's wife apparently asked him to kill her as well as there was no life after her husband's death. Thereafter the accused also attacked the couple's 9 and 3 year old daughters with the weapon. At that time Singh's wife had also accompanied him," the sources said.

Thereafter, he came back to his room and changed and washed his blood-stained clothes. He heard screams from his daughter-in-law and he again went to her room and finally killed her. He also went to his tenant's room where he found the 9-year-old was breathing, so he again attacked her and killed her as well but during this, the 3-year-old daughter of the couple survived. After the killing, the accused had informed his son over the phone about the incident, the sources said.

The accused then came out of his house, fed the cows and cleaned the street in front of his house. Then he surrendered before the Rajendra Park police along with the weapon of crime. CCTV footage of the accused which surfaced on Wednesday shows him going towards the area police station to surrender, carrying the crime weapon.

Sources claimed that the investigation teams have also checked phone locations, CCTV footage of different toll plazas, dhabas to verify the whereabouts of Singh's son Anand Yadav, whom the accused had claimed was not involved in the crime.

"The police investigation is in a preliminary stage. The motive behind the incident is not ascertained yet. However, allegations made by the victim's family will be thoroughly investigated. We have evidence against the prime accused and his wife," Rajeev Yadav, Assistant Commissioner of Police, Udyog Vihar told IANS.