Shamli (Uttar Pradesh), Dec 17 (IANS) A man killed his wife and two daughters and buried their bodies in a seven-foot-deep pit in Uttar Pradesh’s Shamli, officials said on Wednesday.

The accused, identified as Farooq, a resident of Garhi village of the Kandhla Police Station area, is currently in police custody.

The deceased are identified as 32-year-old Tahira, Afreen (14-year-old) and Sehreem (7-year-old). Farooq and Tahira have three other children, officials said.

According to the police, he committed this heinous crime because his wife had gone from her in-laws’ house to her parents’ house without wearing a burqa. Farooq and Tahira were also not on good terms for several months and frequently quarrelled.

Farooq and his parents, Dawood and Asgari, had not been on speaking terms for several months and lived in separate houses. For the past six days, Tahira, Afreen and Sehreem had been missing from home.

When Dawood asked Farooq about his wife and children, he said that he had kept them in a rented house in Shamli. When he didn’t receive a satisfactory answer, he reported the matter to the police on Tuesday evening.

Upon interrogation, Farooq confessed to the crime. He said that he got furious after his wife did not wear a burqa while visiting her parents, and hence he killed her. He further said that since his daughters woke up and saw him committing the crime, he killed them too.

Superintendent of Police (SP) N.P. Singh, speaking to the reporters, said, “Our team arrived as soon as we received the information about a woman and her two daughters being missing. We interrogated Farooq strictly, and during this, he confessed to the crime. He told us that he was financially struggling. He also mentioned that his wife asked for some money, due to which they fought. After this, she went to her parents’ home without wearing a burqa.”

“He thought that due to this, he lost respect in society. After his wife came back, he started to feel that she was not interested in him, which made him furious, and he decided to kill her,” Singh added.

The SP further mentioned that the accused woke up his wife on the night of December 9-10 for a cup of tea. The children were sleeping, and his wife came out to make him a tea. Farooq had already brought a gun and shot his wife.

According to the officials, he shot his wife and elder daughter while strangling the other one.

He mentioned that he had buried his wife and daughters in a seven-foot-deep pit in the courtyard of their home, which he had dug out for the very purpose, and then covered it with a brick floor.

Police excavated the area, recovered the bodies and sent them for post-mortem.

–IANS

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