Delhi man kills wife, minor sons; slashes his own wrist later

One of his friends alerted his brother, a government doctor and resident of the same neighbourhood, who called the police. Officers reached the spot around 6am

Thirty-eight-year-old Rajesh Kumar’s flat owner SP Verma said Kumar’s family, which moved into his two-room house four years ago, always paid their rent on time. A neighbour, Laxman Sharma, said that Kumar sent his five-year-old son to the best pre-school in the area. Kumar’s brother-in-law Akhilesh, said the family had been in a festive mood since the birth of their second son three months ago.

In the letter, Kumar wrote about his financial woes over the last 10 years that allegedly prompted him to kill his family and attempt to harm himself. (Representative image/Getty Images)

But a long message that Kumar sent on a WhatsApp group of his school friends around 5am on Sunday - a suicide note by the man who allegedly killed his wife and two sons before trying to die by suicide – told a very different tale. One of his friends alerted his brother, a government doctor and resident of the same neighbourhood, who called the police. Officers reached the spot around 6am, broke down the door to Kumar’s home, found the bodies of his wife and children, and rushed him to a hospital before he could bleed to death.

In the letter, Kumar wrote about his financial woes over the last 10 years that allegedly prompted him to kill his family and attempt to harm himself.

Until two years ago, Kumar was running a firm that provided certain services for ISO certifications. “According to his suicide note, his employees brought his business down. They allegedly lured his customers away and then went on to open rival firms,” said deputy commissioner of police (Dwarka) Harshvardhan.

If that setback wasn’t enough, Kumar allegedly wasn’t able to recover money he had loaned to some people. “One of them issued him a cheque for ₹2 lakh that bounced,” the officer said. Additionally, Kumar allegedly lost smaller amounts like ₹5,000- ₹10,000 to people who promised to help him get a loan, but never did.

Kumar named some of the people in the letter, but had not complained to the police about these incidents, investigators said.

After his company collapsed, he opened a grocery shop near his home, but it did not do him much good financially, the police said.

People around him, however, had no clue of his woes. “He had rented in one of the more beautiful buildings in this neighbourhood, and educated his son in the best pre-school here. We can’t believe that such a man would be in such dire financial straits,” said Laxman Sharma, a neighbour.

Verma said he couldn’t believe money was the reason for the incident. “He and his family seemed very happy,” he said.

Kumar’s brother-in-law, Akhilesh, said that the couple had just celebrated three months of their younger son’s birth on Saturday. “I spoke to my sister on video call at night. There was nothing unusual about them, they seemed normal,” said Akhilesh.

For now, police are waiting for Kumar to recover so they can interrogate him.