A 39-year-old builder and his wife allegedly killed their infant daughter and attempted suicide at their home in D-13 Maharani Bagh, South Delhi.
The woman and the child are dead. The builder, Syed Mohammed Abbas, has been admitted in the Trauma Center of AIIMS and is said to be in a critical condition.
According to the police, a call was made around 2.15 pm by Ravi Aggarwal, the landlord of the house.
“He said Abbas lives with his wife 34-year-old Neelam and two-and-a-half year old daughter Zenab on the first floor of his house. But they were not opening the door since morning and he suspected that something was wrong,” said Bhisham Singh, Assistant Commissioner of Police (Sarita Vihar).
When the police arrived, they found the door bolted from inside. Entering the house through an open window, they found Abbas, Neelam and Zenab on the bed. Neelam and Zenab were already dead. Abbas was alive and blood was oozing from a slit wrist.
“Neelam and Zenab probably died after consuming some poisonous substance. There was no external injury on their bodies,” Singh said.
Their bodies have been sent for postmortem.
Police officers say two suicide notes have been recovered — one by Abbas and another by Neelam. Abbas’s note said he was taking the step due to huge financial losses. He named two persons — Sanjeev Sharma and Ramesh — alleging that they had been threatening him for the past few weeks, as he was unable to repay the loans he had taken from them.
He also mentioned his partner, Anupam Pandey, asking for his forgiveness. Neelam, in her four-line note, had written that they were responsible for their deaths and that their bodies should be buried according to Muslim faith.
Santosh, a cleaner employed by the family, had been the first to visit on Thursday morning. “I clean their Honda City and Zen cars. Today, I went to their house around 6.30 am. However, no one opened the door,” he said.
“A few minutes later, the maid, Anita also came and knocked at the door and no one opened,” said HGS Dhaliwal, the Deputy Commissioner of Police (south district). “Anita went off, thinking they were asleep and came back around 2 pm. Abbas’s driver came at the same time and when no one opened the door they informed Aggarwal who called the police,” Dhaliwal said.
Aggarwal runs a pest control business.
Ranjeet Kumar, a driver who works in a nearby home, said someone had seen Abbas early that morning, offering namaz.
Neelam’s parents, he said, were frequent visitors, but he never saw Abbas’s parents. A senior police officer said Abbas had not paid rent for the past two months and two cheques that he had issued, each of about Rs 65,000, had bounced.
Police said that they are probing the case and will question Anupam, Sanjeev and Rajesh. Asked about the involvement of an outsider, DCP Dhaliwal added, “We haven’t found clues about any outside involvement yet.”
Construction firm downs shutters
As the news spread in Syed Mohammad Abbas’s construction company — Emhan — in Noida’s Sector 18, the workers closed the office number 601, 602. Newsline visited the sixth floor office around 6.30 pm and found the shutters down.
Police sources said Abbas was conducting work at several sites in Noida Sector 2 and Gurgaon and Faridabad.
“The company bought plots in these satellite towns and built flats. With EMI shooting up and rates of steel and cement also going up, we believe the company was going through a downturn,” said an employee.
Police sources said Abbas was a resident of Aligarh and recently came to Delhi from Dubai. “He took this office on rent around ten months ago,” an officer said. He had done a course in interior designing in Dubai.
“I can’t believe this happened. A lot of people have invested money in his company,” said bank employee Manoj Kumar, whose family has also invested money in the company. “There must be scores of investors. The office looked busy throughout the day,” he added.
— MOHIT SHARMA