19-year-old murders four family members; nabbed

A student of class XII was held for allegedly hacking his parents, sister and grandmother to death and burying them inside the house in West Bengal's Malda district. The incident occurred in February but was reported on Friday night.

Kaliachak (Malda):Kaliachak, a hamlet in the Malda district of West Bengal came to a national focus on Saturday morning following a gruesome incident where a 19-year old boy killed four of his own family members and hid those bodies in the water tank of his residence. The accused, Asif Mehbub (19) has already been arrested by the local police. According to initial police reports, Asif killed his father Jawad Ali, mother Ira Bibi, sister Arifa Khatun and grand-mother Alekjan Khantun and then buried their bodies within a water tank.

On Saturday, the police also recovered the bodies of the four victims allegedly killed by Asif. Police officials said that the police started investigating the matter following the complaint lodged by Asif’s elder brother, Arif (21), who alleged that his younger brother had killed four of his family members and had hidden the bodies somewhere. Arif also alleged that his brother also tried to eliminate him, but he somehow escaped.

Following the complaint, the police first arrested Asif and then started interrogating him. During the interrogation, Asif confessed his guilt and according to them, the bodies of the four victims were recovered.

In his complaint, Arif alleged that his family members were missing since February this year and he strongly doubted that his younger brother was connected to it. He also mentioned in his complaint that Asif made attempts to kill him but he fled to Kolkata.

Arif's statements to the police were also corroborated to a great extent by the neighbours of the ill-fated family and as per their statements to the police that the four victims were missing from the same time which was mentioned by Arif in a police complaint. The neighbours also told the police that Asif used to avoid their questions whenever they tried to check the whereabouts of the victims.

“Even Asif himself went missing in the meantime for some days. His movements and behaviour were highly suspicious,” said one of the neighbours. The police suspect that there can be multiple angles behind the reason for such a heinous crime. As per initial information collected by them, Asif used to lead an extremely lavish lifestyle for which he often demanded money from his father, who was a local businessman.

“As informed to us, even his father had to sell the property to provide money to Asif. We are investigating that angle. At the same time, we conduct a thorough checkup of Asif’s mental health. It will also be investigated whether Asif committed the crime alone or he had some associates,” a probe official said.