19-year-old buys knife online, murders father of woman he wanted to marry

According to the police, the suspect had ordered a knife from an online shopping company about one and half months ago and used it to murder the father of a 19-year-old woman for fixing his daughter’s marriage elsewhere.

A 19-year-old man who allegedly murdered his neighbour on May 2, was arrested on Wednesday when he was heading to Ghaziabad court to surrender, the police said.

The suspect Hanish Kumar (in blue T-shirt) was arrested when he was on his way to a Ghaziabad court to surrender. (Sakib Ali / HT Photo)

According to the police, the suspect had ordered a knife from an online shopping company about one and half months ago and used it to murder the father of a 19-year-old woman for fixing his daughter’s marriage elsewhere.

The police said that the suspect told them he killed the woman’s father because he loved her and could not convince him to let her marry him instead. The woman’s wedding was scheduled to be held on May 17.

The police said the murder took place on the afternoon of May 2, when the suspect, identified as Hanish Kumar, who was studying in a private college in Ghaziabad, entered the house of the victim Raju Kumar, and stabbed him several times with the knife he purchased online for Rs 279.

CCTV camera footage revealed that the suspect followed the injured victim for about 200 metres in the street around 1pm and stabbed him eight or nine more times before he collapsed.

“The victim suffered severe injuries and none of his neighbours came to help him. He was declared dead. The suspect fled the spot and hid his bloodstained clothes and the knife near a temple in Sikrod and remained in hiding. Several police teams tried to trace him. He was spotted outside the Ghaziabad court on Wednesday—he planned to surrender along with his mother. They were both nabbed by a police team,” Sanjay Pandey, SHO of Sihani Gate police station, said.

After the attack, the victim’s wife filed a police complaint and lodged an FIR at the Sihani Gate police station against the prime suspect and his mother, Kusum.

The man is the third of four brothers, and his father works with a private company in Noida.

“I knew the woman for the past three years as we are neighbours and we spoke to each other quite often in the last one year. I fell in love with her and wanted to marry her. For the past four months, her father had sent her to live in their hometown Rohta, Meerut, after fixing her wedding. I opposed her wedding and there had been frequent altercations with her family whenever I approached them with a proposal,” Hanish said.

After he failed to see the woman for four months, Hanish allegedly ordered a knife from an online shopping company for Rs 279.

“The knife was small and looked beautiful. So I purchased it. I kept it with me all the time. On the day of the incident, I went to the woman’s house. Her father was alone. I started to argue with him again about cancelling her wedding, but he got angry. He pulled out his mobile phone and tried dialling someone. After this I stabbed him once, but he ran out of the house into the street,” he added.

The footage seized by the police shows the man running and stabbing the victim (who was trying to save himself) about eight or nine times.

“The victim was first stabbed on the side of the head. After this, there were multiple stabs to his body, which finally killed him. The wedding, scheduled for May 17, will be performed. The mother of the suspect has also been booked for murder with common intention as she allegedly encouraged her son during the attack,” Pandey added.

“The bloodstained clothes and the knife were also recovered,” he said.