I killed mother, sister, brother: man tells police in East Delhi’s Laxmi Nagar

The police are yet to confirm what was used by Singh to strangulate his family members. Officers also said that the forensic tests would confirm what substance was used to sedate the victims.

Clothes hanging outside the balcony of a house on the first floor of a residential building in East Delhi’s Laxmi Nagar, where three murders were reported Monday, were still damp when police officers, neighbours and curious onlookers crowded a narrow lane. The bodies of three family members were yet to be taken out.

Yashveer Singh had walked into the Laxmi Nagar police station, just hours before, claiming to have killed his mother Kavita (46), sister Meghana (24) and brother Mukul (14) due to financial distress, police said.

Officers said that after Singh reached the police station around 5 pm, multiple police teams rushed to his residence in Mangal Bazar area. The bodies of all three were found inside the house, they added. Sources privy to the details said it seemed that Singh had allegedly mixed a sedative into sweets before feeding them to his family to render them unconscious. He then allegedly throttled them.

“He was clearly upset over some financial issues. He had not been able to pay the house’s rent for the last seven months,” said an officer.

Police also confirmed that Singh was married and his wife had left for her native village a few days before he committed the murders.

Neighbours were shocked when they heard about the killings, saying that the family seemed quiet and kept to themselves. “We used to regularly see the mother and sister go to the nearby temple, early in the morning. They were very devout…the younger boy mostly kept to himself. We did not see him hang out with the other youths of the area,” said Naresh Gupta, a neighbour.

Despite the Singh family renting the house for almost three years, neighbours said they would hardly ever interact with outsiders. “(Yashveer’s) father is a truck driver based out of Haryana. He also worked as a driver but had been sitting at home, unemployed, for the last few months,” said Sanjeev Kumar, another neighbour.

Another neighbour from the same building, Gautam, said that the family was polite and greeted everyone they met. “They were the quiet kind and kept to themselves. In the three years they have stayed here, I never heard any commotion coming from their house,” said Gautam, who lives on the floor above that of the Singhs.

Officers, meanwhile, said that the information provided by Yashveer was being verified and all facts and circumstances surrounding the deaths are under examination.

The scene has been secured and further investigation is underway, police said, adding that more details will be shared as the investigation progresses.