Husband succumbs to injuries day after wife killed in knife attack in Delhi’s Khyala; accused arrested

The police have arrested the accused, who allegedly attacked the couple and their son in west Delhi’s Khyala after a quarrel over a “trivial issue”. Police have also recovered a knife allegedly used in the crime.

A person wounded in a knife attack on a family died on Thursday, a day after his wife succumbed to her injuries suffered in the same incident.

A police officer holds a knife, allegedly used in the stabbing incident in Khyala. A woman and her husband died and their son is critical after being stabbed by their neighbour.(Sanchit Khanna/HT Photo)

The police have arrested the accused, who allegedly attacked the couple and their son in west Delhi’s Khyala after a quarrel over a “trivial issue”. Police have also recovered a knife allegedly used in the crime.

While 35-year-old Sunita died on the spot, her husband Veer Pal and son Aakash were battling for their lives after being stabbed multiple times in a neighbourhood located a few hundred metres from the Khyala police station. Police said Veer Pal, 41, succumbed to his injuries around 1.30am on Thursday. Aakash, 18, remained critical.

Videos of the attack, recorded by eyewitnesses, showed the alleged 43-year-old killer repeatedly stabbing Pal around 7pm on Wednesday. The video also showed a host of onlookers, mostly local residents and passersby, screaming in horror.

On Thursday, many of those who witnessed the attack said they were “too horrified” to react to the murders that unfolded for nearly 10 minutes. “Pal was brutally stabbed. We did not know how to react. The killer was waving a long knife at us and threatened if we approach him,” said Manpreet, a local resident.

Manpreet claimed that the killer stopped the stabbing after her husband and another man hurled bricks at the suspect. “The killer thought that people were pelting stones at him. So he walked into his house and then emerged a few seconds later and walked away,” Manpreet said.

Pal’s 20-year-old daughter, Khushboo, alleged that no one among dozens of onlookers rushed her parents to hospital for over 45 minutes.

The problem culminating into the double murders had begun a few months ago. “My eight-year-old sister is the only member of our family who goes to school. One day, she had returned from school and was playing with us when her water bottle fell from the balcony of our rented flat on the second floor,” said Khushboo.

The bottle nearly hit the suspected killer and it resulted in a quarrel between him and the victims’ family. “The man would often follow me to work only to abuse my mother and sisters. I regret not being in the neighbourhood at the time of the attack. I would have thwarted the attack and save my parents,” said Aman,14, Pal’s another son.

Wednesday’s attack was triggered by a confrontation between the suspect and Sunita while she was returning home after buying vegetables around 7 pm.

“The man began abusing my mother. She did not respond, but came home and told us about it. My brother Aakash went down to warn him. He had barely knocked a few times on the man’s door when he emerged with a big knife and stabbed Aakash,” said Khushboo.

Moments later, Aakash’s parents rushed to his defence, but they too were pinned to the ground and stabbed repeatedly.

The suspected killer was caught from Zakhira in west Delhi in the early hours of Thursday, said Monika Bhardwaj, DCP (west).