On Wednesday evening, 35-year-old Asma was distributing laddoos to her neighbours — construction was almost complete on their new one-room home and the family of five would shift soon.
The next night, Asma, her husband Mohammad Moin (38), and their three minor daughters were found dead at their rented one-room house in Meerut. Moin’s body was tied to a bed while those of his wife and children — aged eight, four and one — were stuffed inside the storage compartment of their bed.
The motive, according to police, was likely a property dispute. Police on Friday detained three suspects — Moin’s stepbrothers and a sister-in-law — and picked up another relative for questioning.
“We have detained three of them, but the main accused, who seems to have planned the entire crime, is missing. He went missing once the matter came out in the open,” said Meerut Senior Superintendent of Police Vipin Tada.
“Moin had recently bought a piece of land in Meerut. For now, our probe says this could have been the reason for their death,” he said.
According to neighbours, Moin’s family had shifted to their rented house in Meerut around two months ago and were waiting to shift to their own house that was being constructed 50 metres away.
“We suspect whoever killed them had planned to transfer the body to some other place, but that could not be done,” said an officer — pointing to the way the bodies were packed in plastic bags.
Neighbours say that Moin, a mason, had shifted to Meerut from Uttarakhand’s Roorkee. “He came across as a nice man, but did not talk much to others,” said Ehsan Ali, 60.
Ali said he had often seen the children play outside but never saw visitors. “Even on Thursday, due to the winter cold, most of us were indoors. We heard no scream, no yelling from their house.”.
The deaths came to light when another of Moin’s brothers, Saleem, arrived at the house and found the door locked from the outside. Suspecting something was amiss, he informed the police.
There are around 50 houses in the area where Moin’s family stays, most of them small and single-storeyed. Most residents are small-time labourers or vegetable and fruit vendors. The roads are pockmarked with potholes and puddles.
On Friday, most of the local residents stayed indoors. Among those who peeped out of their windows and doors was a common refrain: “How did five people get killed but we saw no one?”
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