Prayagraj man ‘killed’ parents and sister over jewellery. Then came a deadly betrayal

Police said Virendra and Anita were found dead on a bed inside a room, while the body of Meenakshi was found lying close to the upstairs. All three had head injuries caused by a heavy object.

Vaishya family used to live on the upper floors and there was a market complex on the ground floor.

Vaishya’s son Abhishek, 40,was missing from the house and initially appeared to be main suspect. But, the police officials found his body also lying with similar head injuries caused by heavy object inside his shop. The shops was locked from outside.

The police investigation found relations between Virendra Vaishya and his son Abhishek had turned sour over the years over financial issues and property. Virendra had disowned Abhishek from his property in 2022. The police had found blood-stained clothes allegedly belonging to Abhishek from the house and also evidence of attempts made to destroy traces of the crime.

Officials said that the inputs from the CCTV camera and surveillance enabled them to trace Sunny Gupta, a friend of Abhishek, who owned a snack shop in the same market complex. The CCTV camera reportedly showed a person leaving the house wearing the clothes of Virendra Vaishya. The person seen was later identified as Sunny Gupta.

Sunny was arrested from his house in Mutthiganj locality.

During interrogation, Sunny revealed that he runs a shop of snacks on rent in the market complex owned by Vaishya. Abhishek too has a shop of detergent and toilet cleaners in the same complex. Both were friends and used to sit together to have drinks. Abhishek’s sister Meenakshi too used to run a shop of gifts in the same market.

On May 31, Sunny told the police, he sat with Abhishek in his shop around 3 pm and both were having liquor when the latter lured him to help him collect jewellery worth lakhs from his house. Abhishek, who had to pay a heavy debt, reportedly convinced Sunny to kill his parents and the sister to rob the jewellery.

They decided to execute the crime then only and first attacked Meenakshi soon after she came downstairs to open her shop around 5 pm. Soon after she opened the doors to step in, Abhishek hit her head with an iron head repeatedly leaving her critically injured and bleeding profusely. Both carried her upstairs and left her there only where she succumbed to injuries.

Sunny further revealed, the duo went to the room and attacked Virendra and Anita with the same iron rod hitting on their heads causing their death. The bodies were left on the bed and covered with clothes. Abhishek wrote on a cardboard “Bunty, Babli and Bahub have killed” in an attempt to frame his brother Ashwini and sister-in-law Ritu, who are allegedly known by the nicknames Bunty and Babli. He dumped the pen, clothes, laptop and mobiles in the water tank and both came downstairs in his shop.

The police further said, Sunny and Abhishek entered into a brawl over their share in the stolen jewellery. Sunny allegedly killed Abhishek with the same iron rod on the same premises. After killing Abhishek, Sunny poured detergent, Harpic, bleaching powder, turmeric and mustard oil on all the bodies and cleaned the rooms in an attempt to destroy evidence and delay detection of the crime. He then allegedly locked the house and the shop before leaving, the police said.

The jewellery was recovered from inside Sunny’s shop on the same building premises.

-The writer is an intern with The Indian Express