In a shocking incident, a 35-year-old architect strangled his pregnant wife and three-year-old son to death in Northwest Delhi’s Keshavpuram area. He may have been under depression over poor finances, said the police, adding, “the accused was in an inebriated condition when he committed the crime.”
According to the police, the accused, identified as Vikram Bhatia, has been arrested.
However, it is not yet clear whether Bhatia was about to kill himself as well, as a note was found in which the accused had scribbled that he took the extreme step as “nobody had helped him.” Bhatia has been booked under Section 302 (murder) of IPC, added the police.
“Bodies of the victims, identified as Nitu — who also turned out to be pregnant — and three-year-old Naveen, were sent for postmortem examination and later handed over to their relatives,” said a police official. The incident came to light when Nitu’s brother came to visit her on Friday evening and nobody opened the door, which was locked from inside. He informed the landlord and they broke open the door and found the three family members lying motionless, said the police. The police was informed and all the three were rushed to a hospital, where Nitu and Naveen were declared brought dead and Bhatia was found to be excessively drunk. “Initially, it appeared like a failed attempt of family suicide. But when Bhatia’s statement was recorded on Saturday morning, he confessed to have killed his wife and child, but did not mention anything about committing suicide,” said a senior official.
Bhatia told the police that he first allegedly strangled his wife and then the child, the official said, adding that the motive behind his action was still unclear.
Bhatia is a Delhi-based architect and had moved to a new rented apartment at Keshavpuram around a month ago.
He had set up his office at the new residence itself, said the police.
During further investigation, it came to the fore that Bhatia was under heavy debt and had been asking for money from all his relatives and associates, including his in-laws. Some of them had helped the accused for quite sometime but later gave up, for which he was reported to be very depressed lately, said the police.
It is suspected that he took the extreme step out of depression caused by the financial crisis.
However, he shall be subjected to further questioning. Investigation of the case is underway, the cops added.
