A middle-aged couple was shot dead by armed assailants in northeast Delhi’s Harsh Vihar area in the early hours of Wednesday.
Among the prime suspect is the deceased couple’s neighbour’s son, who is on the run since the murders took place.
The deceased have been identified as Sharda Prasad, 43, who worked as a supervisor in a private company, and Shobha Tiwari, 41, a housewife.
The incident took place around 5.30 am when the assailants barged into the Harsh Vihar’s Saboli residence and fired indiscriminately at Shobha who was preparing tea for the family. “Hearing the gunshots, Sharda Prasad, who was sleeping on the first floor, came down and the assailants shot him and fled,” a senior police official said.
The police sources revealed that the victim’s son identified as Durgesh, 22, who works in Jammu, had eloped with a minor girl living in the neighbourhood in December 2010 following which a case was registered against him. Durgesh works for a private company in Jammu and the girl was traced in January 2011 to his Jammu apartment and brought back to capital.
“When she was produced before a court for hearing in the case registered against Durgesh, she gave a clean chit to Durgesh and told the judge that she had willingly eloped with Durgesh. This irked her family as they didn’t want her to keep any relationship with Durgesh. The case was coming up for hearing on Wednesday and Durgesh had arrived from Jammu few days ago for court appearance,” the official said.