Man kills wife and 15-year-old daughter in Ghaziabad apartment, held

Police reported that the suspect, who had stopped his psychiatric medication, premeditated the attack.

A 48-year-old man was arrested for allegedly murdering his wife and his teenage daughter, and injuring another minor daughter at their fourth-floor apartment at Lokpriya Vihar in Ghaziabad’s Khoda late Friday, police officers said on Saturday.

Police inspect the building of the incident in Khoda. (Sakib Ali/HT Photo)

The police identified the suspect as Mohammad Raja Ansari, and his deceased wife as Baby Tabassum, 43. The daughter who died was 15 years old, and the one who survived with injuries is 14 years old, police said.

“The man stabbed his wife in the throat and other body parts multiple times in their room. Hearing the noise, the 15-year-old came running from the other room to save her mother, but she was also stabbed in the throat. The suspect then attacked his 14-year-old daughter, but she escaped with a minor injury and ran out. The neighbours alerted the police, and a police team rushed to the spot. The suspect was detained from the spot,” Suryabali Maurya, assistant commissioner of police (Indirapuram), told HT.

Police said that the man was reportedly suffering from mental issues since 2022 and had recently stopped taking his medication. They also said the murder was premeditated.

Naresh Kumar Sharma, the station house officer of Khoda police station, said, “The suspect planned to kill his family and procured a knife from the Ghazipur market where he worked.”

Islamuddin Ansari, the wife’s brother, said that the couple had been married for 17 years. “My brother-in-law was in depression, and he was on medication for the past several years. He had stopped taking medicine for the past one-and-a-half months. There was no dispute within the family as such. The 14-year-old who survived the incident told us that her mother was pressing her father to continue his medicine, but he was not ready. This led to a fight and the subsequent events,” Ansari said.

The 15-year-old was a Class 10 student at an east Delhi school, and the 14-year-old is a Class 8 student, he said.

The 14-year-old girl said, “I woke up during the incident and saw that my mother and my sister were trying to stop my father from attacking them. I also got injured during the incident, but I came out, and a neighbourhood uncle took me downstairs to safety.”

Based on the complaint by the 14-year-old girl, the police registered an FIR against the accused under sections 103(1) (murder) and 109(1) (attempt to murder) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita at Khoda police station on Saturday.

“I had been facing financial burden due to growing household expenditures and also expenses on my health issues. So, I thought it would be better that I get rid of my responsibilities. I wanted to kill all three, including my younger daughter. I thought that my act was right, but now I regret it, and I will have to face consequences for what I have done,” the suspect told mediapersons at the Khoda police station on Saturday.