Out-of-job techie kills wife, three kids in Ghaziabad

GHAZIABAD: A 37-year-old software engineer out of job for the past four months allegedly killed his wife and three children by slitting their throats in their flat in Indirapuram on the intervening night of Saturday and Sunday. The alleged murder, however, came to light around 7pm on Sunday after the techie, Sumit Kumar, posted a video on the family’s WhatsApp group and told the members that he had killed his wife and kids and would soon commit suicide.
Police said Sumit had been jobless since December and the family was facing severe financial crisis since then. He had joined a Bengaluru-based company — UST Global — in October last year but resigned two months later.
His family, however, came to know about it during Holi in March, when he left Bengaluru permanently and started living with them in their Gyan Khand 4 flat. Sumit’s wife Anshu Bala (32), who taught at Mother’s Pride, sons Prathmesh (5) and Arav (4) and daughter Akriti (4), had been living in the 2BHK rented flat with the engineer’s in-laws for the past two and a half years. Sumit’s in-laws are currently in Bihar for a marriage function.
According to Sumit’s elder sister Guddi, he says in the video that he was depressed and had killed his family, and would soon consume potassium cyanide to kill himself “in 5 minutes”.
He was last seen leaving his flat around 3am on Sunday and had asked the guard to open the gates. Sumit apparently told him he would return home by 11am and was carrying a backpack. After Guddi saw the video, she informed Anshu’s elder brother Pankaj Singh, who lives in Nyay Khand. Pankaj went to Sumit’s flat and found it locked from inside. A police team broke the main door and found Prathmesh’s body in the hall. The bodies of Anshu, Akriti and Arav were in the bedroom.
Pankaj said that after returning from Bengaluru, Sumit would keep to himself and often indulged in drugs. In the WhatsApp video, Sumit had a made mention about his drug habits and claimed a peddler had cheated him of Rs 1 lakh.
Till late on Sunday evening, police were yet to trace Sumit. Originally from Jamshedpur, he had married Anshu of Chhapra district in 2011. Neighbours said they had not seen or heard the couple fighting or arguing ever. Prior to shifting to Bengaluru, Sumit worked in Gurgaon.
Prathmesh was a student of Class I, while his two younger siblings were yet to be admitted to any school. Anshu’s father had retired from the Army and had been working as a security supervisor with a high-rise in Indirapuram.
SP (city) Shlok Kumar said the bodies had been sent for autopsy and an FIR had been registered on Pankaj’s complaint.
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