Rohtak: Facing opposition to her relationship with a neighbourhood boy, a 19-year-old girl murdered seven of her family members, including her parents and brother, in connivance with him, police said Saturday. Both have been arrested.
Seven members of a retired teacher`s family including his son and two daughters-in-law were found murdered in their house in Kabulpura village near this Haryana town, some 70 km from New Delhi, Tuesday morning. The village is about 20 km from here.
The victims had strangulation marks on their necks.
"Sonam mixed some intoxicant in the flour before the dinner Monday night. After eating the chapatis made from it, all the family members fell unconscious," Rohtak Superintendent of Police Anil Kumar Rao told IANS.
Sonam had also swallowed two tablets of intoxicants to create an impression that she was also one of the victims.
Rao said Sonam then called Naveen, who lives in the neighbourhood, and both of them killed the seven people by strangulating them.
The bodies were found by the teacher - Sonam`s grandfather - who lives nearby, when no one came to give him his morning tea. The victims included the teacher`s four grandchildren. His other son, who is in the army, was away when the crime was committed.
Police started suspecting Sonam, as she was the lone survivor of the family and was found in a semi-conscious state by her grandfather Tuesday morning. She was admitted at the Post-Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences (PGIMS) in Rohtak town.
"Suspecting something fishy, we interrogated her. She gave confusing answers to our questions that reinforced our belief that she is involved in the crime in one way or the other. However, after a long questioning she confessed before the police, following which we arrested her and Naveen," said Rao.
"The couple fell in love with each other while studying at a college in Rohtak. There are reports that they had married a few months back, but we have to verify them. Their families were against their relationship that prompted them to commit this crime," he said.
In a similar crime in Haryana, Sonia had murdered eight members of her family in August 2001, with the help of her husband Sanjeev Kumar to grab the ancestral property of her father.
She had murdered her father Relu Ram Punia, a former legislator from Hisar, mother, sister, stepbrother, his wife and their three children.
The couple was awarded death sentence by the district court. The Supreme Court upheld the death penalty in February 2007.
IANS
