PATNA: A 40-year-old man allegedly killed his wife and three daughters and hanged himself from a tree in Bihar's Khagaria district early on Wednesday.
The incident took place around 1.30 am at Ekania village under Mansi police station in the district. Munna Yadav slit the throat of his wife Pooja Devi (32) with a sharp-edged weapon when she was asleep. The couple had an altercation over Pooja's insistence to surrender in the murder case lodged against him in
October 2022.
Munna later killed his three daughters—Suman Kumari (18), Aanchal Kumari (16) and Roshani Kumari (15) with the same weapon. The daughters were sleeping on the rooftop of the building. He also made an abortive attempt to kill his two sons—Ankit Kumar (12) and Aditya Kumar (10), who managed to escape.
Munna later died by suicide by hanging himself from a tree. The bodies of the victims were recovered early on Wednesday morning and sent to Khagaria sadar hospital for post-mortem. The police seized the weapon used in the crime from the spot.
The deceased's sons told the police that they escaped from the house when they spotted their father with a sharp-edged weapon in his hand. “He was hitting my sisters one after another with the same weapon. We hid ourselves in another room and saved our lives,” the two sons said.
On getting information, Khagaria superintendent of police rushed to the spot and inquired about the incident. While four members of a family have been killed the fifth one killed himself by suicide. “Further investigation is on,” he added.
Locals told the investigating officials that Munna was booked in the murder case in October last year. Since then he was evading arrest. “His wife was pressuring Munna to surrender in the court, which he declined,” said a neighbour.
Khagaria sadar sub-divisional police officer (SDPO) Sumit Kumar said that a forensic team has been requisitioned from Bhagalpur to collect scientific evidence from the site of occurrence.
Ankit and Aditya told the police that their father had reached the house on Tuesday evening. “Since he is evading arrest in the murder case, my mother asked him to surrender in the court, which led to an altercation,” they revealed. Munna's elder brother Bimal Yadav is currently lodged in Khagaria divisional jail in the murder case in which Munna was evading arrest.