Photos | Palwal murders: A doting father turns Haryana’s ‘psycho killer’
Updated On Jan 11, 2018 01:51 PM IST
HT visited Naresh Dhankar’s hometown and family to look into how a “loving father”, “protective husband”, “incorruptible officer”, turned into the cold-blooded killer of six strangers.
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Naresh Dhankar, a 43-year-old former Army officer, went on a murderous spree early on January 02, 2018, randomly killing six persons with an iron rod in Haryana’s Palwal town, 60 km south of Delhi. (Burhaan Kinu / HT Photo)
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At around 7:15 am, Naresh was caught by a police team when he was chasing his seventh victim on the street outside his in-laws’ home. He attacked the police, the police attacked him back, and he ended up with a brain haemorrhage. By 8pm, he was lying unconscious on a bed in Delhi’s Safdarjung hospital. (Vipin Kumar / HT Photo)
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“Naresh gifted me a suit (salwar kurta) and left in the afternoon. I could see he was troubled, but I did not know he had such murderous plans on his mind,” said Seema, Naresh’s wife. He was undergoing psychiatric treatment when he got married to Seema. (Burhaan Kinu / HT Photo)
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Naresh was a boxing champion and an active theatre performer. He was well-read and had topped his batch at Hisar Agricultural University. (Burhaan Kinu / HT Photo)
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Naresh is the youngest of five brothers. “In 1999, Naresh joined the Indian Army as a lieutenant, but could only keep the job for three years. He had cracked the Combined Defence Services Examination in the first attempt,” said his brother Shyamsundar. (Burhaan Kinu / HT Photo)
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Naresh would often visits Seema at her parents’ house. “He is very attached to his son and would beg to be allowed to see the boy. He would arrive with large boxes of fruit. If he was not allowed inside, he would create a ruckus. During one such ruckus six months ago, he even assaulted a neighbour with a brick for trying to intervene,” said the neighbour. (Burhaan Kinu / HT Photo)
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Tasleem Khan (C), discovered Naresh standing next to his sister-in-law Anjum’s body with a rod at the Palwal Hospital. She was in the hospital to attending to her sister-in-law admitted for a delivery. Anjum was asleep on a bench outside the ICU when Naresh attacked her. (Burhaan Kinu / HT Photo)
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“He was violent at times and had to be tied up”, said Chander Pal, Dhankar’s brother while talking about his mental health. (Burhaan Kinu / HT Photo)
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Police and people gathered outside the hospital where Dhankar clubbed six people to death. Five of the victims were found dead in a 400 metre radius from the Palwal city police station. All of them had head injuries. (Subhash Sharma / HT Photo)
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Anjum’s body was found drenched in blood, her head smashed in, near the first floor waiting room lobby of Palwal Hospital. (Vipin Kumar / HT Photo)
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