Delhi: Triple murder case solved, 7 arrested

The sensational triple murder of a family in central Delhi’s Rajinder Nagar area was solved with the arrest of seven persons, including two juveniles by the Delhi police on Wednesday. They had committed the murders for robbery.

The police identified the arrested accused as Rajan Singh, Rajendra Singh, Sanjay Kumar, Harender, Ram Kishore and the two juveniles.

Harender and Ram Kishore were arrested from their native village in UP’s Bulandshahar and the others were held in Delhi. One accused is still at large, DCP (central) Paramaditya said. On Sunday morning, Sanjay Sonaria (50), his wife Jyoti (47) and their son Pawan (20), were found murdered at their third floor residence in Old Rajinder Nagar, and the house was found ransacked. Jyoti and Pawan’s bodies were discovered first and later Sanjay’s body was found shoved inside a closet.

The police registered a case of murder and as many as 25 teams were engaged in the investigation. Initially, the police suspected Sanjay’s brother, with whom he was involved in a property dispute, for the murders, but there was a breakthrough in the case on Tuesday with the arrest of Rajan and Rajendra on a tip-off and they spilled the beans during interrogation, leading to arrests of the remaining accused.

The motive of the triple murders was robbery as Sanjay, a property dealer, had told Rajan that he had got a huge amount of cash after recent sale of a property and he needed to invest the money for which he had sought Rajan’s help.

However, the police is yet to recover any cash from the possession of the accused. Sanjay, an accused in at least nine cases of cheating and forgery, was jailed for six months during 2013-14. He met Rajan in prison, they became friends and stayed in touch after their release. Sanjay had also asked Rajan to become a partner in his property business, said the police. Rajan, an accused in the murder of a woman in Dwarka, allegedly hatched the plan to kill Sanjay and roped in others. The accused first went to Sanjay’s residence for reconnaissance on Thursday. On Saturday evening, all assembled in Kanhaiya Nagar and left together. Rajan, along with four others, who were introduced to Sanjay as people with whom he could invest the cash, went inside his residence. Two accused waited outside on the staircase, keeping an eye on the neighbours, and another was deployed outside the building. The discussion stretched long and food was ordered before Rajan and his associates asked Sanjay to come to the second bedroom alone for discussing confidential matters as his wife worked in kitchen and son watched TV in another bedroom. They first allegedly strangled Sanjay and shoved his body inside a closet. Then they held Pawan from behind and allegedly strangled him too and covered his body with a light blanket. Jyoti was also allegedly strangled with a stole after this.

The accused ransacked the house, allegedly looking for the stored cash but could not find much. They allegedly made off with the cash they could manage to lay their hands on. But the amount of cash robbed is yet to be evaluated.