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The Varanasi police, investigating the deaths of five members of a family whose bodies were found with gunshot injuries on Tuesday, suspect that the victims were murdered as a fallout of a family dispute.
Police have begun collecting information about the family and any related conflicts, officers said on Wednesday.
On Tuesday, police found the body of 55-year-old liquor businessman Rajendra Gupta in his under-construction house in the Rohaniya area, just hours after his wife, Neetu Gupta (45), and their three children — Navnendra Gupta (25), Shubendra Gupta (15), and Gaurangi Gupta (17) — were found dead with gunshot wounds at their home in the Bhadeni area of the city.
Police said preliminary investigations revealed that Rajendra had been implicated in two murder cases filed in 1997. In one case, he was accused of killing his father, Laxmi Narayan Gupta, and his security guard. In the other case, he was accused of murdering his brother Krishna and Krishna’s wife, Manju. Police added that Rajendra had served time in jail before being released on bail.
“According to available records, Rajendra was acquitted in one of the cases – involving the murder of his father and his father’s security personnel. We are yet to gather details regarding the other murder case,” said Bhelupur Station House Officer (SHO) Vijay Kumar Shukla.
A senior police officer said that they suspect the involvement of “insiders”, such as Krishna’s son, who is untraceable at present.
Krishna and his wife are survived by two sons, who work in Bengaluru and New Delhi. ‘We have not yet been able to contact one of the sons,” said the officer.
The police are also investigating the possible involvement of other relatives of Rajendra and Krishna. Individuals connected to Rajendra are being questioned, officers said.
Additionally, police have reviewed CCTV footage from cameras near their house, but no conclusive evidence has been found so far.
Earlier, on Tuesday morning, Rajendra’s domestic help, Reeta, arrived for work and noticed that the house was not locked from the inside. Upon entering, she found the bodies of four of the family members in pool of blood.
Rajendra’s mother told the police that she was in another part of the house at the time and claimed that she did not hear any gunshots.
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