Out on bail for brother’s murder, a man in Uttar Pradesh was again arrested for killing his widowed sister-in-law and her three daughters, said the police on Thursday. The accused allegedly pushed the four into a river with the help of an accomplice.
Anirudh Kumar, a resident of Ramaipurva village in Bahraich, was jailed in connection with the 2018 murder of his brother Santosh Kumar over a property dispute, ASP (Rural) Durga Prasad Tiwari said. After securing bail a few months after the murder, Anirudh began living with his brother's wife, Suman, 36, after coercing her into a relationship. They had two daughters — six-year-old Anshika and three-year-old Laado — said the officer. Suman also had a 12-year-old daughter, Nandini, from her marriage to Santosh.
As Suman was a key witness in her husband's murder case, Anirudh had been asking her to change her testimony, but she refused to budge, and she then recently shifted to her maternal home with her three daughters.
On August 19, Suman's mother, Rampata, lodged a missing persons complaint for her daughter and the three girls, who had gone missing since August 14. She suspected that Anirudh and an associate of his had kidnapped the four, intending to kill them.
Acting on a tip-off, police arrested Anirudh at Gayghat bridge in the Motipur area. During interrogation, Anirudh confessed that with the help of his partner, he had called Suman and the three girls to Mihipurwa town on August 14, taken them to a bridge on the Sharda River in the Khamharia area of Lakhimpur Kheri district, and then killed them by pushing them into the river, the officer said.
The accomplice of Anirudh is missing, and the police is conducting a search operation for the same.
Meanwhile, ASP informed that police have recovered clothes of Suman and the girls, the shoes of one of the girls, and the motorcycle used in the crime from bushes near the spot. However, the bodies have not yet been found.
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