NEW DELHI: An alleged extra-marital affair turned out to be the reason behind a brutal and bizarre triple murder at Rajnagar, near Dwarka in south-west Delhi, on Friday night.
A couple and their daughter-in-law were found stabbed to death in their house in the dead of night. And the culprit, as all along suspected by the police, allegedly turned out to be the adopted son of the family who was arrested late on Saturday night. But not before, the accused, Nitin Verma (26), tried to cover his tracks with red herrings.
The ferocity of the attack could be gauged from the fact that there were 42 stab wounds on the body of Pooja Verma (24), the daughter-in-law, 18 on Vinod Verma (57) and 14 on the body of his wife, Pushpa (51).
Nitin, alleged the cops, had planned to eliminate his wife, Pooja, but was caught in the act by his parents. So, even as he was allegedly assaulting his wife on the second floor, his mother, Pushpa, rushed to protect her and was also stabbed. Vinod, who was attracted by the commotion, was similarly assaulted by Nitin.
The cops say that though the exact sequence is not clear, Vinod must have stumbled down the stairs since his body was found on the ground floor. His wife's body was found on a sofa on the first floor; police suspect it was removed by Nitin.
The bodies were discovered by a neighbour who had been alerted by Vinod's younger brother, Vijay, who stays at nearby Palam village.
Vijay had received a call from Nitin around 12.25 am that he had got injured in an accident while on his way home from work and that no one at his home was responding.
Vijay sent his sons Amit and Sumit to help Nitin and called up one Ravindra in Rajnagar to check out the house. Ravindra, too, said there was no response, but then he found the main door open and came across the body of Vinod lying in pool of blood.
Vijay rushed to the house and discovered the other bodies. By 1 am the police had been called in. When Amit and Sumit brought Nitin to the house, he was apparently so distraught with grief that he banged his head against the wall and fainted, said a family member. He had suffered injuries in his right hand and leg. He was taken to Deen Dayal Upadhaya (DDU) Hospital from where he was shifted to Safdarjang Hospital in the morning.
Doctors who conducted the post-mortem on the three bodies at DDU Hospital said there were stab wounds all over, including face and neck.
Nitin changed his statement later, according to the police, to say that three masked men had attacked them inside the house and he had escaped and reached Buddha Garden in the ridge.
With no valuables missing from the house and not much property at stake, besides the entry being friendly, these contradictory statements made Nitin the prime suspect early in the probe.
And within hours he was arrested after he allegedly broke down under sustained interrogation. "We have arrested Nitin Verma for the murders. He has confessed to the crime and the fact that he was having an extramarital affair with a local girl which drove him to the extreme step," said DCP, south-west, Shalini Singh.
In fact, late in the evening, police had said that they had recovered the weapon of offence, a dagger, and a blood-soaked towel from a railway line near Dwarka at the instance of Nitin.
The cops say the crime could have taken place around 12.15 am. Pooja, according to the police, was two months pregnant and worked at a private school as a teacher.
Her family, which stays in Paschimpuri in west Delhi, were alleging right from the beginning that Nitin was behind the incident though they weren't able to say why they suspected him.
Her uncle, Ved Prakash, said that Nitin had spoken to Pooja's brother, Rahul, at 10 pm and told him that he was at home. "Then how could he reach Buddha Garden," he asked. The family said the couple got married in January last year and it was a love marriage.
Verma was the eldest of three brothers and was earlier staying in Teliwara in Sadar Bazar. The family bought this house in 2004 and shifted. His two brothers are staying at Palam village.
"Nitin was adopted from Safdarjung Hospital and it was my father, Dilip Verma, who organised the adoption. He gave him the name, Nitin. He was loved and cared for by my brother and his wife and no one in the family ever got to know that we had adopted him," said Vijay.
