MP ex-deputy CM’s son gets life for 2021 murder of brother, his wife and 4-yr-old child

The four other persons, too, were handed life terms on Wednesday. They are Harbhajan’s wife Dhankunwar (39), his brothers-in-law Parmeshwar Kanwar (31) and Surendra Singh Kanwar (26), and Parmeshwar’s friend Ramprasad Mannewar (31).

A senior tribal community leader from Congress, Pyarelal Kanwar was the deputy CM of the then undivided Madhya Pradesh during Digvijay Singh’s government from 1993 to 1998. He died in 2011. Harish was also in politics.

The murders took place at around 4.15 am on April 21, 2021. The accused persons allegedly killed the family of three with butcher knives — in front of Harbhajan and Harish’s mother Janki Bai.

“The attack was so brutal that the faces of Harish and his daughter were difficult to identify. Harish did fight back using a sharp weapon and injured Parmeshwar on his face,” said a police official.

“The accused were unidentified. We started by sifting through footage of CCTV cameras in the vicinity which showed us the route on which the accused had fled. The first clue came when we learnt that Parmeshwar had supposedly met with an accident on the same route. He was questioned and it became clear he was lying. We asked him about the murder and he told us he is related to Harbhajan. He kept denying but as we gathered more evidence, he admitted to the crime,” inspector Lakhan Lal Patel, who investigated the case, told The Indian Express.

Police also found a text message sent from one of the phones used by Harbhajan’s family members to Parmeshwar stating they had left the house and left the door open. The message requested Parmeshwar to spare the life of the four-year-old girl.

While recording the statements of the family members, police learnt that Harbhajan and Harish often fought over property disputes. The family had sold a piece of land to the government but Harish had kept the compensation money as well his mother’s pension which led to the animosity, alleged a family member and a witness. Even Parmeshwar had a financial dispute with Harish.

All the five accused were given life imprisonment, confirmed public prosecutor Krishna Kumar Dwivedi.