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

Police said according to their preliminary probe, Kumar’s elderly parents slept through the incident and only woke up when police broke down their door around 6am

A 38-year-old man allegedly killed his 35-year-old wife, and two sons, aged five years and three months, before attempting to die by suicide at their home in west Delhi’s Mohan Garden early Sunday.

Rajesh Kumar lived with his wife, two sons, and his parents in a rented two-room set on the ground floor of a four-storey apartment building in Vipin Garden, a middle-income neighbourhood near Uttam Nagar. (HT Photo)

The man, Rajesh Kumar, sent a suicide note around 5am to his school friends on their WhatsApp group, one of whom alerted his brother. The brother, a government doctor and resident of the same neighbourhood, called the police, who reached the spot around 6am, broke down the door to Kumar’s home and rushed him to a hospital before he could bleed to death.

“In that suicide note, Kumar wrote of severe financial woes that led to him killing his family and attempting to harm himself,” deputy commissioner of police (Dwarka) Harshvardhan said.

The DCP said that the note detailed how his business failed because of certain employees, about the money he loaned out to some people, about being cheated by others who promised to help him obtain loans, and a bounced cheque. “We will investigate those aspects,” Harshvardhan said.

Until Covid-19 struck, Kumar was running a firm that provided certain services for ISO certifications. But over the last couple of years, he ran a grocery store a few hundred metres from his home, police said.

“He is undergoing treatment at Deen Dayal Upadhyay Hospital, and is likely to survive. Given how deeply he slit his wrist, it is surprising he survived,” the DCP said.

Kumar has been booked for murder at Mohan Garden police station in Dwarka district. He is yet to recover enough to be able to speak to the police.

Originally from Bihar, Kumar lived with his wife, two sons, and his parents in a rented two-room set on the ground floor of a four-storey apartment building in Vipin Garden, a middle-income neighbourhood near Uttam Nagar. “They paid ₹13,300 as monthly rent and were staying here for the last four years. We never saw them unduly worried about money,” said their landlord, SP Verma.

Police said according to their preliminary probe, Kumar’s elderly parents slept through the incident and only woke up when police broke down their door around 6am .

“Kumar sent a long message to a WhatsApp group of his school friends around 5am. One of them called his brother who informed the police,” said the DCP.

The police’s calls to open the door yielded no response from within, so they broke down the door. “Kumar’s father is over 80-years-old and is bed-ridden and practically immobile. We found his mother, around 75-years-old, had fallen on the floor in her bedroom,” the DCP said. “We are being sensitive to their age and trauma,” the officer said.

Police said they found the three bodies beside each other on the bed in the other room and Kumar unconscious on the floor. While a still-breathing Kumar was rushed to hospital, the bodies of the other three were sent to a mortuary.

Family members expressed their shock and grief over the incident and said they didn’t sense anything amiss. “I spoke to my sister between 12am and 1am on Sunday. Her baby had turned three months old on Saturday and everything seemed well,” said Kumar’s brother-in-law, Akhilesh.

Kumar’s wife’s family alleged that more people were involved in the triple murder. “Police found a pair of gloves at the murder scene. There seems more to this,” said Akhilesh.

The DCP confirmed that gloves were found at the spot, but said they were unused. “They were found in a packet. We will interrogate Kumar when he recovers,” said Harshvardhan.