19-yr-old student kills parents, sister in Delhi

NEW DELHI: Angered by the constant badgering by his family over his “wayward lifestyle,” a 19-year-old engineering student who hated studies stabbed his parents and teenaged sister to death at their apartment in south Delhi’s Kishangarh in the early hours of Wednesday, the police said.

After buying a knife and a pair of scissors on Tuesday, Sarnam Verma, alias Suraj, stabbed his parents and sister multiple times while they were asleep n their two-bedroom apartment at around 3 am on Wednesday, said Devender Arya, deputy commissioner of police (south-west).

Suraj, who suffered minor injuries while stabbing the three, later tried to pass off the killings as the handiwork of unidentified robbers, police said. “However, the evidence at the crime spot and the inconsistent version of events narrated by Suraj gave him away,” said the DCP.

Suraj is a first-year civil engineering student at a college in Gurugram.

He lived with his parents, Mithilesh and Siya, a couple in their 40s, and his 16-year-old sister. Mithilesh was an interior designer contractor who owned a four-storey building in Kishangarh village near Vasant Kunj.

Having rented out other flats in the building, the Verma family lived in a two-bedroom apartment on the first floor.

Suraj’s sister was a class 11 student. The murders came to light around 5 am on Wednesday when a couple in the neighbourhood was returning from a hospital. “We were entering our apartment when we heard Suraj calling out for help. He was leaning against his flat’s balcony and said robbers had attacked him and his family,” said neighbour Renu Verma. Her husband Yogendra jumped from his balcony into Suraj’s home. “I found Mithilesh lying dead in one bedroom and his wife and daughter with stab wounds in another. Suraj had relatively minor injuries on his finger, back and head,” he said.

The couple said the Vermas’ flat had been locked from inside. “It was Suraj who gave us the keys to the main gate,” said Renu. The police were informed and they rushed the four members of the family to a hospital where three were declared brought dead. “Suraj told us that two men had entered the flat and attacked his family for resisting a robbery,” said Renu.

Investigators said Suraj’s version was riddled with loopholes. “The only entrance for an outsider was possible through the balcony. Our investigations revealed no one had entered through the balcony,” said the DCP. Though Suraj had tried to pass off the murders as a robbery bid-gone-wrong, the cash, jewellery and other valuables had been untouched. The DCP said there was evidence to suggest that Suraj was using banned drugs. “Suraj broke down and confessed. Initially, he claimed that his father had killed his mother and sister first. Suraj claimed he killed his father after watching him kill the two. Later, he confessed he had killed all of them in their sleep,” said the DCP. The officer said Suraj had a “reckless lifestyle” that irked his parents and sister. “Suraj told us that academics did not interest him,” said the DCP, quoting Suraj. To stay away from his parents, Suraj and eight friends had rented a flat in Mehrauli, said the officer.