Gurgaon: A 67-year-old former Indian Army man committed suicide by hanging himself with a towel in Bhondsi jail here Tuesday morning, police informed. Army man Rai Rao Singh had been arrested for allegedly murdering his daughter-in-law and three members of his tenant’s family including a child. He had been lodged in Bhondsi jail August 27 after he committed the crime August 25.
As per preliminary information, Singh was found dead at 6.40am in the washroom. The jail staff could not locate him during the routine attendance, informed the police. They said further proceedings have been initiated and a magistrate is conducting a judicial enquiry.
“The incident took place between 3.00am and 4.00am Tuesday. No suicide note has been recovered so far. We are probing the matter,” Jagbir Singh, station house officer (SHO), Bhondsi police station, said.
The former army man had surrendered before the police station August 25 with a machete in his hand. He confessed that he killed his daughter-in-law and three members of his tenant’s family, including their nine-year-old daughter. However, the tenant’s second daughter, aged 6, had survived the incident.
The accused’s wife was also arrested by the police for allegedly accompanying him while he hacked the four to death. Police said she was also a part of the murder conspiracy.
During the probe, the police said the army man had disclosed that he suspected that his daughter-in-law had an extra-marital affair with his tenant. So he committed the crime.
The tenant’s family, however, dismissed the illicit relationship story and alleged that they had a rent-related dispute with the accused. The family of the accused’s daughter-in-law had also alleged that Singh and his son were eyeing a plot in her name and killed her to grab it.
In connection with the incident, a case of murder and other relevant sections of the IPC were registered against the accused and his wife on the complaint of the tenant’s family at Rajendra Park police station.
