- Police suspect that the man's preference for a son could be behind the killings
- First responders found the bodies lying in a pool of blood
- The man worked as a vegetable seller at Azadpur Mandi
A man allegedly slit the throats of his two-month pregnant wife and three daughters at their residence in the outer north area of the national capital, with police suspecting that his preference for a son could be behind the killings, officials said.
First responders at the Prem Chand Park area house on Wednesday morning witnessed a grisly sight - 27-year-old Anita and her daughters, aged three, four and five years, lying in a pool of blood.
"All four victims had their throats slit with a sharp-edged weapon. The injuries were so deep that their windpipes was cut," a senior police officer said, describing the crime scene as "extremely brutal".
While investigators are probing all possible angles, including a suspected extramarital affair, preliminary inquiry suggests that the gruesome killings may have been triggered by the couple's three girl children and the lack of a son, police said, adding that the suspect, Munchun Kewat, has been missing from the house.
Police said a PCR call was received at 8.07 am on Wednesday regarding the bodies lying inside a room on the ground floor of the house.
The bodies were first noticed in the morning by relatives and neighbours. "This morning, when my brother-in-law's son came with his uncle to go to the market, he was crying. I came down and asked him what happened," Rubi, a relative, told PTI.
"He said aunt and cousins' throats have been slit," Rubi said. "When I asked around, I found out that there had been a murder. No one knew anything about it last night." Prima facie, it appears that Kewat, allegedly intoxicated his wife and daughters before attacking them. He has been missing since early morning and is the prime suspect in the case, police said.
"No specific reason has come to light yet, but it has been learned that they had a dispute around 9 pm last night," a police officer said, adding that all angles, including the possibility of an affair, are being examined.
Rubi said the family, originally from Bihar's Patna district, had been living in the area for the past two years and that the couple did not usually fight. Kewat worked as a vegetable seller at Azadpur Mandi, police said.
Crime and Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) teams inspected the scene and collected evidence. The bodies have been sent for postmortem examination.
A case under Section 103(1) (murder) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita has been registered and multiple teams have been formed to trace and apprehend Kewat, police said.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
