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A bloody morning inside Delhi apartment

Prashant Pandey

Man held for shooting wife in the head, throwing son and daughter down to death from seventh floor flat

NEW DELHI: In an episode most bizarre, a 32-year-old Delhi businessman allegedly flung his two minor children to death from the balcony of his seventh floor flat on Monday morning after shooting his wife in the head. The accused, who claims to be under a huge debt trap, also purportedly tried to kill himself but "failed".

The police came to know of the gruesome happenings around 6-15 a.m. when they received a call claiming that Naveen Ahuja of Jagran Apartments in Dwarka Sector-22 had tried to kill his wife and thrown his children down from his seventh floor flat.

At the time, Naveen's mother and sister were also in the house.

According to the police, Naveen first shot his wife in the head from his country-made revolver when she was asleep. He then caught hold of eight-year-old Manav, a student of Father Agnel's School sleeping in another room, and allegedly flung him down from the balcony. Manav died on the spot.

Naveen then allegedly picked up six-year-old Manavi, a student of Bal Bharati School, and threw her down from the second balcony at the rear of the flat. There were reports that he strangulated his daughter before throwing her down from the balcony. Following the commotion, the security guards of the apartment and other residents rushed to the spot and informed the police. Naveen was later handed over to the police. His wife Meenu was rushed to Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Hospital from where she was referred to Apollo Hospital. Her condition was reported to be critical. The police said the bullet was lodged in her head and the doctors had kept her under observation.

During interrogation, Naveen, owner of a sweets shop at Satya Niketan near Dhaula Kuan, purportedly told the police that he had come under a debt amounting to over Rs.50 lakhs. He was apparently passing through a phase of depression and decided to kill his family.

Naveen also purportedly told the police that after killing his children he tried to take his own life but the weapon failed to fire.

However, the police said there were many holes in Naveen's version. They said that the manner in which the tragedy unfolded indicated that the accused had planned it in advance and executed it in cold blood.

According to the police, Naveen had shifted to the Dwarka flat only a couple of days ago. Earlier he used to live at Gautam Nagar in South Delhi. He had sold his flat there before shifting. He had also procured the country-made revolver a few days ago. The police are also trying to find out if he had any links with anti-social elements.

Suspecting that there could more to it than meets the eye, the police are hoping that Naveen's wife, as and when she regains consciousness, will be able to shed more light on the entire episode. They are also questioning Naveen's relatives.

Meanwhile, a case of murder and attempt to murder has been registered at the Kapashera police station and further investigations are on. In a similar case in Delhi recently, another businessman, Rajkumar Khandelwal from Gaya in Bihar, had killed his wife and three daughters in a hotel at Lahori Gate. He had in a note claimed that he was under heavy debt and tremendous pressure to repay it. He was arrested a couple of days later at Nizamuddin railway station.

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