Man held for killing four members of a family three years ago

The accused was identified as Abhishek Pal alias Mintu, a resident of Wazirabad village, Delhi, they added.

In July 2016, the body of Naina, a school teacher in Wazirabad, was recovered from a canal in Hapur by Uttar Pradesh Police. Her car was also found abandoned near the canal, A K Singla, Additional Commissioner of Police (Crime) said.

During investigations by UP Police, the family members of the deceased – her father, mother and her brother -- were also found missing and they could not be traced. It was then suspected to be a case of honour killing, the officer said.

Later, the Delhi Police Crime Branch received information that the main accused in Naina's case would come at Outer Ring Road, near Sanjay Akhada to meet his associates. Later, a trap was laid and the accused was successfully apprehended, the officer added.

During interrogation, Pal, a small-time contractor, disclosed that he was well acquainted with Ved Prakash, Naina's father, and his family, the officer said.

Pal's close friend Ritesh Katiyar was an employee of Prakash at his garment shop at a Monastery, Majnu Ka Tila. Later, Prakash transferred his business to Ritesh and gave his shop to him on rent, the senior officer said.

Due to financial crisis, Ritesh took a loan from Prakash through Pal as a guarantor, in August-2015. As Ritesh could not pay back the loan, a dispute had arisen between them and Prakash was regularly pressurising Pal and Ritesh for his payments, the officer added.

Pal was upset and shared his problems with his friend Sonu, the nephew of Prakash. Sonu had previous enmity with his uncle and wanted to grab his business and property. He instigated Pal to eliminate Prakash and lured him for a share in his property and business, Singla said Thereafter, Pal planned to kill Prakash and his family and roped in Manoj, resident of Wazirabad, Delhi (who was only 16-year-old at that time) in his plan, Singla added.

At that time, Shubham, Prakash's son, was learning driving from Pal, he said.

On July 15, 2016 at around 11-11.30 am, Pal called Prakash stating that the tyres of the car had to be changed. Prakash came outside his house and they asked him to sit in the front seat of the car which was being driven by Pal.Manoj strangled him to death. After killing Prakash, they put his body in the trunk of the car, the senior officer said.

Later, the accused persons got suspicious that Shubham had seen them with his father. They called Shubham and killed him in the same way at around 2 to 3 pm. They also put his dead body in the trunk of the car, the officer said.

The accused switched off their phones after the killings and shifted the bodies to Pal's house, the officer added.

As Prakash's wife Sadhana had seen Pal taking her son with him, they planned to kill her too and strangled her using the clutch wire. Thereafter, the accused persons called Naina and killed her in a similar way in the Swift car on the same day at around 9 pm, the officer said.

They put the bodies of Naina and her mother in their Swift car and covered the glass with black colour curtains. Later, in the intervening night of July 16 and 17, 2016, Pal and Manoj took all the bodies in the Santro car and reached the Upper Ganga canal in Hapur, Uttar Pradesh and threw all bodies in it. The other three bodies have not yet been found, the officer said.

Pal said that Manoj has died in a road accident in Uttar Pradesh. One countrymade pistol and 2 live cartridges were recovered from his possession, Singla said.