In a shocking incident, five members of a family were found dead inside their home in Uttar Pradesh’s Prayagraj. The police suspect that they were all attacked and killed with a sharp-edged weapon.
It has also been reported that the house was set on fire after the crime. The incident has sent shock waves among the locals as cases of mass murder have been reported earlier in the district as well.
According to police, the case is being investigated and the district SP had reached the site with a team and forensic experts soon after the incident was reported.
The victims of the spine-chilling incident in Khawajpur area include Ram Kumar Yadav (55), his wife Kusum Devi (52), daughter Manisha (25), daughter-in-law Savita (27) and granddaughter Minakshi (2).
Another granddaughter Sakshi (5) has survived, police said. Yadav's son Sunil (30), who was not at home at the time of the crime, is assisting in the investigation, officials added.
Senior police officer Ajay Kumar said injury marks on the bodies suggest that all five were hit on the head. The bodies have been sent for post-mortem and seven teams have been formed to look into the gruesome crime, the officer added.
Dog squads and forensic experts have also reached the spot to collect clues that can lead to the killers, police said.
District magistrate Sanjay Kumar Khatri, who rushed to the spot after the crime, said local residents had raised an alarm after they spotted a fire in Yadav's home.
"Police were initially informed that a fire had broken out. As police and fire-fighting teams reached, bodies of Yadav and the others were found in the house. The bodies of the little girl and her mother were near the room where the fire had broken out. Yadav and his wife, who was still breathing, were on a charpoy. Then their daughter's body was found," he told the media.
"No angle of enmity has come to the fore so far," the district magistrate said.
Local residents said the man was a trader dealing in cattle, and the family were living as tenants in Khagalpur, Nawabganj for the past few years.
District magistrate Sanjay Khatri, who also visit the spot, said a panel of doctors would conduct the family’s autopsy.
As per the locals, all the family members were sleeping in the courtyard due to the weather when they were brutally attacked by some unidentified men.
Locals noticed smoke coming out from the residence and when they rushed to the spot, they found that 5 members were brutally killed.
The police have launched an investigation but have not been able to ascertain the cause behind the murders yet.
Notably, this is not the first time that a brutal mass murder has been reported in Prayagraj. Last week, four members of a family were stabbed to death in the Nawabganj district of the city.
Soon after, another murder of two people was reported by Prayagraj’s Soranv.
The police are still investigating these cases.
