‘Killed mother in her sleep to frame his rivals’: Trader arrested for Bareilly murder

Mahendra, who runs a general store, allegedly told police that he struck his mother on the head with a blunt object while she was sleeping outside the house to implicate his rivals in the murder case.

“We found Mahendra Singh’s involvement in the case and arrested him on Thursday,” said Inspector Sanjay Dheer, the investigating officer who is heading the Special Investigation Team formed to probe the case.

He said that during the investigation, police subjected six persons, including the five accused named in the FIR and one of their relatives, to polygraph tests after obtaining permission from the court.

Police also sought to conduct polygraph tests on Mahendra, his wife and his elder brother Gajendra Singh, but they declined to undergo the tests.

During their investigation, police found a long-standing dispute between Mahendra’s family and their distant relative, Nathu Singh, over running a ration shop.

Mahendra allegedly suspected that his nephew, who was recently arrested in an Arms Act case, had been falsely implicated by Nathu and his family.

Police also verified the whereabouts of the accused named in the FIR at the time of the crime.

According to police, the victim had come to stay at her son Mahendra’s house a day before the incident.

The deceased’s eldest son, Gajendra Singh, lodged an FIR against five of his distant relatives at the Bhamora police station.

Mahendra initially told the police that on the night of the incident on August 6 he and his mother had dinner around 7.30 pm and he remained with her until around 11.30 pm. He then placed her cot under a tree outside the house at her request, before he along with his wife and children went to sleep at his brother’s house located nearby.

He said that when he returned home the next morning, he found his mother dead.

“The doctor who conducted the postmortem told us that the murder took place around two hours after dinner. We found discrepancies in Mahendra’s statements. When he was questioned in detail, he admitted to the crime,” said Inspector Sanjay Dheer.