A woman was killed, while her husband and 18-year-old son were critically injured after they were stabbed by their neighbour Wednesday evening in west Delhi’s Khayala, said police.
The suspect, a 40-year-old Mohammad Azad of a DDA colony, is absconding. Police identified the deceased as Sunita, her injured husband and son as Viru and Akash, respectively. They said that Azad’s family lived on the ground floor, while Sunita’s family lived on the second floor.
According to the police, the attack could have been a fallout over a minor argument the two families had a couple of days ago.
Police said that at around 7.30 pm, Sunita was returning home after buying groceries when she crossed paths with Azad and the duo entered into an argument.
“People in the area say that after Azad and Sunita argued, she went home and narrated the incident to her son Akash who rushed to Azad’s house and allegedly started abusing him for arguing with his mother. Azad then stepped out of his house and got into a physical confrontation with Akash. Seeing his son being overpowered, Viru also rushed to his aid,” said a police officer who is not authorised to speak to the media.
In full public view, Azad then stabbed Akash and Viru with a knife, the officer said, adding that when Sunita came to their aid, Azad stabbed her multiple times too. Azad then allegedly fled from the spot. People in the area then made a PCR call. Police said all three victims were rushed to Guru Gobind Singh Hospital in Khyala where Sunita was pronounced dead, and Viru and Akash are critically injured.
The couple also have an eight -year-old daughter who was unharmed as she was at home at the time of the incident.
“Initial probe revealed that a few days ago, when the couple’s daughter was returning home from school, she dropped her water bottle while climbing the stairs. The bottle just missed hitting one of Azad’s family members on the ground floor,” said Joint commissioner of police (west) Madhup Kumar Tewari. “On this, Azad had an argument with the child’s parents. Locals said Wednesday’s murder was fallout of this argument. We are yet to ascertain it.” Tewari said teams have been formed to search for Azad and police were probing if anyone else was involved