Sirsa (Haryana):
In a gory incident, a property dealer allegedly killed his wife and two minor sons and stuffed them into a wooden box before setting it on fire in Dhani Natar village of Sirsa district in Haryana.
Villagers saw smoke billowing out of Malkit Singh's house on Wednesday. They went inside and saw that three rooms were totally charred and also found occupants missing.
They informed the police, which, after reaching the house, came across a box in which three half burnt bodies were discovered.
The charred bodies of Malkit's wife Amarjeet Kaur and their two children, six-month-old Sahajpal and 18-month-old Navdeep were stuffed inside the big wooden box, a senior police official said.
Malkit, a property dealer by profession, is the key suspect in this case as he had a strained relation with his wife due to his alleged "extra-marital affair", police said.
"This affair was open in the public domain. Attempts of panchayat had earlier failed to bring Malkit back to track. The matter, according to the family members of Amarjeet Kaur and other villagers was a source to continued family discord and they suspect that it was due to this alleged affair that the accused committed this heinous crime," a police official said.
According to Kaur's brother Randhir Singh, a resident of Abholi village, Malkit's father Bhajan Singh, his brother Bhola and a woman with whom Malkit had alleged relations, were involved in the crime, police said.
Police have booked the four on Randhir's complaint. They said they were also investigating whether the three could have been burnt alive.
Superintendent of Police Devender Yadav visited the spot on Wednesday and told reporters that police parties have been dispatched to possible hideouts to trace the accused.