Rajesh Kumar (51), his wife Komal (46) and their daughter Kavita (23) were found dead at their home in Delhi’s Neb Sarai on the morning of December 4 — the couple’s wedding anniversary. Their 20-year-old son Arjun made the first call to the police and told them of the chilling murders he discovered after returning from a walk. The probe that followed revealed a grisly tale of how bruised ego and sibling rivalry turned an aspiring boxer into a killer of his own family.
According to police, the crime scene did not suggest ransacking or theft. When police scanned CCTV footage of the area, they found no sign of a suspicious or forced entry either. The complainant, Arjun, told them no household items were missing. Therefore, robbery was ruled out. The police’s investigation did not point to any dispute between the family and their neighbours. No angle of personal animosity was found either.
Police then turned to the son. “The version of son of the deceased was found suspicious as there were lots of contradictions in his statements,” a police statement said. Initially, Arjun tried to mislead the investigation. But he broke down during the interrogation and confessed to the crime.
The 20-year-old second-year student of Delhi University then shared numbing details of how he planned to murder his parents and his sister and why he did it. A trained state-level boxer, Arjun told police that he had chosen the day of the crime carefully — it was his parents’ marriage anniversary. This pointed to the hate the young man had nursed for his family.
He told police that his father was an Army veteran and scolded him for not studying hard. A recent incident during which his father scolded and thrashed him in the neighbourhood proved to be the tipping point. “Due to this insult in front of others, he felt deeply humiliated. He had (a) deep grudge against his father and family members as no one (would) support him. He used to feel neglected and isolated,” the police statement said.
Arjun told the police that he recently came to know that his father had decided to give away property to his sister Kavita. On the morning of his parents’ death anniversary, he stabbed them and his sister to death with a knife in their sleep. Some reports say it was an Army knife that belonged to his father.
“To create a web of deception, he went out at 5.30 am to have (an) alibi so that nobody could have suspicion on him,” police said.
According to a neighbour, Arjun told them that he had wished his parents a happy wedding anniversary before going for a walk and returned to find them dead. “The son told us that he went out for a morning walk and when he returned he saw, his parents and sister had been stabbed to death and there was blood all around. He told us it was their marriage anniversary and went out after wishing them,” a neighbour told news agency ANI.
Joint Police Commissioner, Southern Range, SK Jain said, “During questioning, we found contradictions in Arjun’s statements. Eventually, he confessed that he killed them.”