2 days after murder of Shamli singers’ family, disciple held

“Himanshu is a disciple of victim Ajay Pathak (42) and used to perform with him for the last two-and-a-half years. During interrogation, he told the police that he had given Rs 60,000 to Ajay who was not only returning him the money, but also used to humiliate him in front of his family members whenever he asked for the sum. On Monday night, he stayed in their house and killed Ajay, his wife Sneha Pathak (36) and their daughter Vasundahra (14) with a sword, while he strangulated Bhagwat to death,” said Shamli Superintendent of Police Vineet Jaiswal.

“He wanted to take away the bodies in the couple’s car, but could not carry out his plan single-handedly. So, he just bundled Bhagwat’s body in the car and locked the house to give an impression that the family had left for Karnal in Haryana where Ajay was scheduled to perform at a bhajan sandhya Tuesday. He also took all the four mobile phones of the family members with himself,” the SP pointed out, adding Haryana Police had handed him over to them.

He was produced in a local court in Shamli, which sent him to 14-day judicial custody on Wednesday.

The police added that Himanshu was in dire need of money as he was unable to repay a loan of Rs 5 lakh from a bank, which served him a legal notice in this connection.