A 35-year-old Indian man got so furious after being publicly humiliated by his cousin over money that he decided to allegedly kill her and her three minor children.
The main accused, Santosh Rathore, allegedly slit his cousin's throat and that of her children with a knife and scissors in Kucha Sadhuram, Agra. He and one of his aides, Veeru Valmiki, were arrested on Tuesday. Police said that their accomplice, Anshul Rathore, is still at large, reported The Times Of India.
According IG (Agra range) Naveen Arora, the murder was a planned one. On July 21 afternoon, the accused went to Rekha's house. They allegedly drugged her and her children by putting sedatives in their tea, and later murdered them, he said.
They didn't flee right after the murder. Instead, they ransacked the house and took away cash, jewelry, a laptop, a tablet and a mobile phone. They were in the house for almost four hours.
During interrogation, Rathore told police that he had borrowed Rs 2 lakh ($0.2 million) from his cousin two years ago, but couldn't pay it back to her, informed Subhash Chandra Pandey, station house officer of Kotwali police station.
Rekha had been insulting him publicly for the money. So, he decided to take revenge on her by murdering her and her children. Rathore also knew that Rekha had got Rs 4 lakh ($0.4 million) from somewhere, and he thought he could steal it after murdering her, said Pandey. Police took help of electronic, digital surveillance and CCTV footage to solve the case. The police team that solved the case will get a reward of Rs 25,000 ($336.63).
In a similar incident, a 31-year-old man was allegedly stabbed to death by his cousin over money in Chamarajpet, Bengaluru on Monday, according to The Hindu. Police said that the deceased, Vinod Kumar, had lent Rs 6 lakh ($0.6 million) to his cousin Arun Kumar a year ago. They used to fight over repayment of the loan.
On Monday, Vinod went to Arun’s house and demanded that he pay him the money. Vinod also insulted him in front of his wife and children. Both the men got engaged in a heated argument. Then Arun tried to call the police to complain about the harassment, but Vinod grabbed the phone. This made Arun angry, and he took a knife and stabbed Vinod repeatedly. The police later arrested Arun.