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How 800 CCTV cameras and facial recognition tracked a Delhi vegetable vendor who slit the throats of wife and 3 kids over debt
The Delhi Police conducted an operation spanning several states to track down the quadruple-murder accused.
The house where the four murders took place. (Photo Credit: Pragynesh)
At 4 am on Wednesday, February 25, a vegetable vendor at the Azadpur Mandi in Delhi slit the throats of his wife and three minor daughters at their rented room in Samaypur Badli, and he mulled whether he should end his life as well. But he decided to escape from Delhi, and fled to Ajmer in Rajasthan.
The quadruple-murder accused, Munchun Kewat, 42, however, could manage to escape the police for only three days. The Delhi Police finally caught up with him, and arrested him in Rajasthan’s Kishangarh on Saturday.
The quadruple murder had come to light on the morning of February 25, when a call was made to the Police Control Room reporting a horrific scene at a one-room house in Samaypur Badli. A police team rushed to the spot, and found Anita, 30, and her three daughters, aged 3, 4, and 5 years, lying dead inside their ground-floor room. All four had their throats slit with a sharp-edged weapon.
The woman’s husband, Munchun Kewat, was missing from the house and immediately became the prime suspect.
From Delhi to Ajmer and Kishangarh
According to the Delhi Police, Kewat fled towards Ajmer after killing his family.
Thereafter, investigators conducted an extensive technical probe, analysing footage from more than 800 CCTV cameras and deployed Facial Recognition System (FRS) technology to nab the suspect.
The police tracked the suspect’s movements from transport hubs in Delhi to Rajasthan. Teams were also sent to Bihar and Tamil Nadu to verify possible hideouts and past connections.
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“He worked in Pannapakkam in Tamil Nadu from 2023 to 2024. He had also worked under a contractor named Suresh in Rajasthan just after the lockdown,” said Hareshwar Swami, Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), Outer North.
After sustained surveillance and coordinated raids, Kewat was intercepted and apprehended in Kishangarh.
‘Extreme financial pressure’
The police said Kewat has confessed to the crimes. He allegedly revealed that the family was under “extreme financial pressure due to a huge loan”, which led to frequent domestic disputes.
“He took a loan from a loan shark named Mithilesh. Mithilesh said that he would keep his wife with him and make her and the children work if he didn’t pay him back. This made Kewat angry. He planned to kill his wife, and bought a knife for Rs 90 from the mandi. But he couldn’t do it,” DCP Swami said.
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However, he allegedly slit his wife’s throat in the early hours of Wednesday. When his eldest daughter woke up crying, he killed her as well, followed by the two younger children. He fled to Ajmer, surviving on roadside food and sleeping in market yards, the officer added.
The police said he had borrowed Rs 2 lakh from his in-laws in recent months. Of this, Rs 60,000 was allegedly paid towards debt, Rs 40,000 to a vegetable supplier, and around Rs 1 lakh was lost in gambling, including cricket betting and teen patti.
Further investigation, including financial scrutiny and forensic examination, is underway.
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