Killers got ideas from crime shows on TV

The two accused, who murdered three members of a family in Sohna, told police on Sunday that they got the idea for the murders by watching crimebased television shows like ‘Crime Patrol’ and ‘Savdhaan India’.

Alwar police arrested the duo — Geeta Tomar and her domestic help Vikas — late on Friday night on the charges of murdering Geeta’s father-in-law, mother-in-law and brother-in-law.

“The accused used to watch TV shows like ‘Crime Patrol’ and ‘Savdhaan India’ to get ideas to commit the murder. Geeta and Vikas discussed the crime stories and framed their plan after watching these crimebased TV shows,” said inspector Ajit Singh, station house officer (SHO) Ramgarh police station, Alwar.

Vikas, who is from Rajasthan, proposed that after strangulating the victims, their bodies could be disposed by burning them. They reportedly learnt from the television shows that burning the bodies destroys their DNA and that would make the identification of the bodies difficult.

The accused also told police they learnt from the shows that they should not burn the bodies at a single spot and that the areas should far apart so that it becomes difficult to identify the bodies, Singh said.

The accused reportedly borrowed a neighbour’s vehicle for transporting the bodies as they did not want to use their own car. Geeta and Vikas came up with all these ideas after watching the crime-based TV shows, said the inspector.

They burnt bodies of fatherin-law, Satpal Tomar (65), and mother-in-law, Pushpa (60), at Naugaon village in Rajasthan’s Alwar district. The half-burnt body of Geeta’s brother-in-law, Pankaj Kumar (38), was found at Nagina area of Haryana’s Mewat district.

Satpal’s daughter Hemlata Panwar, 44, claimed that the accused had allegedly threatened the victims a few days ago that they “would not be able to celebrate Diwali”.

“We called the police control room and complained about the threat, but no action had been initiated,” Hemlata told HT on Sunday at Sohna.

The victim’s relatives also claimed that over the last year, there had been several disputes concerning property rights among the family members.