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Sitapur murders’ follow-up: Proof found, motive established, younger brother held
Man single-handedly committed murders; primary intention was to kill elder brother and his wife, police claim
After six days of rigorous investigation, the police arrested Ajit Singh, 40, and claimed to have solved the mystery of the murders of six members of a family, in a Sitapur village, on Thursday. Singh was present in the house at the time of incident on May 10 but remained unhurt.
A dispute over not paying the agricultural loan taken by their late father Virendra Singh, led to the killing of Anurag and five other family members, police officials said. They said Ajit felt jealous watching his brother’s growth and wanted the latter to repay the ₹24 lakh-agricultural loan, which had become the responsibility of both brothers after their father’s death a year ago.
Police said that the hammer and the firearm used in the crime, five used bullet shells and eight live cartridges were recovered from the house.
Inspector general (IG) of police, Lucknow Range, Tarun Gaba and Sitapur superintendent of police (SP) Chakresh Mishra said that Ajit’s primary intention was to kill his brother Anurag Singh, 45, and his wife Priyanka Singh, 40, after lacing their meal with a sedative, but nobody in the family ate the food.
They said that the suspect killed his mother when she woke up after he shot Anurag and his wife dead. He killed the couple’s eldest daughter Aarna, 12, when she refused to get convinced that her father had killed her grandmother and mother before shooting himself. Later, he killed her two other siblings Aadvik, 8, and Aarvi, 7, as they woke up and started crying seeing the dead bodies inside their house.
IG Gaba said that a recreation of the crime sequence, medical reports produced before investigators, sedative-laced food found in the house, snapped wires of the air conditioner and contradictory statements had hinted towards the involvement of Ajit Singh.
He said the arrest of Ajit Singh was delayed as investigators were not convinced that he had killed all six people single-handedly and were interrogating him repeatedly about involvement of other people.
On the morning of May 11, bullet-riddled and bludgeoned bodies of Anurag Singh, his mother, his wife and their three children had been found in their house in Palhapur village of Sitapur. The suspect, Ajit Singh had earlier claimed that an inebriated Anurag Singh shot himself dead early on Saturday morning after killing his mother, wife and three children after a confrontation with the mother and wife.
The IG said that Ajit Singh initially produced medical reports of a Lucknow-based rehabilitation centre which hinted that Anurag was an alcoholic. But the findings of the post-mortem examination that Anurag had two bullet wounds in his head brought Ajit Singh under the scanner, he added.
He said the suspect had confessed that his plan was to kill only his brother and his wife but killed his mother and three kids as they woke up to the reports of the shots.
SP Mishra said that Ajit Singh had used the hammer and an illegal country-made firearm purchased by his late father Virendra Singh for self-protection.
He said the investigators will further seek custody remand of Ajit Singh to interrogate him further about the incident.
