Four of family brutally murdered during robbery at Bareilly house

BAREILY: In an incident that has shocked residents of the city, four members of a family were found brutally murdered at their home in Veer Savarkar Nagar here on Wednesday morning. The unidentified assailants decamped with jewellery, cash and other valuables, according to the police.
The horrific crime came to light when a neighbour discovered the bodies of Naresh Sethi (45), along with his wife Shikha (42) and two teenage children, Subh and Aastha inside their house.
“At around 5:30 am, I heard the school van driver honking, waiting to pick up Aastha, who had her school exam on Wednesday. I got suspicious when the family didn’t respond, because there was almost no activity in the house on the previous day as well,” said Kehari Singh, an advocate and next-door neighbour of the Sethi family.
“I entered the house after climbing the main gate. The front door was open. The couple was lying dead in a room and the children were in the adjacent room. I then informed the police,” he said.
Naresh was an LIC agent and used to invest in property as well. His wife ran a beauty parlour at their residence. Their son Subh was a class X student at Vidya Bhawan School, while daughter Aastha studied in class VII at GRM School.
The bodies had begun decomposing by the time they were discovered. All four had been murdered by a blunt object, with injuries to their heads. Aastha, 15, was lying on the floor while the other three were on beds, indicating she was the only person to put up a struggle against the murderers, while the others were killed in their sleep.
Top officials of the police department including inspector general (IG) Vijay Singh Meena, depurty inspector general (DIG) Ashutosh Kumar, senior superintendent of police (SSP) RK Bhardwaj, superintendent of police (SP) (city) Sameer Saurabh and SP (crime) Vijay Gautam rushed to the crime scene.
SP (city) Sameer Saurabh said, “Prima facie it looks like a case of robbery. The assailants entered the house after removing the iron grill from the kitchen window. The family was possibly murdered to make sure that they did not raise the alarm during the robbery. The crime possibly took place on Monday, when the family was last seen.”
What has added to the mystery is the fact that Gayatri Colony in Veer Savarkar Nagar is a gated community with controlled access from both entry points. Police is still trying to figure out how the crime was committed without anyone getting to hear or see anything.
SSP RK Bhardwaj said, “As of now we are looking at two possibilities. First, that some family dispute went horribly wrong, and second, that the family was murdered by robbers. We have formed several teams under SP (city) Sameer Saurabh and SP (crime) Vijay Gautam, who will be probing all the aspects of the incident.”