The police on Wednesday arrested the brother-in-law of businessman Gulshan Vasudeva, who had jumped to death along with his wife and another woman after killing his teenage children in Indirapuram on the outskirts of Delhi. "Rakesh Verma, the brother in law of Vasudeva, has been arrested for abetting suicide, while his mother Phoola Verma is also accused in the case is on the run," Senior Superintendent of Police, Ghaziabad, Sudhir Kumar Singh told PTI.
Vasudeva (45), his wife Parveen and manager Sanjana jumped to their death in the early hours of Tuesday from the eighth floor of their apartment block in Krishna Apra society in Indirapuram.
Before jumping to death, Vasudeva had killed his son Hrithik (14), daughter Hrithika (18) by slitting their throats at around 3.30 am on Tuesday and also killed their pet rabbit, the police said.
According to the police, Vasudeva had invested money in a property scheme on the behest of Verma, who had assured him good returns but instead put him in debt.
"Verma had duped several people by offering them good returns on investment in property. He lured Vasudeva as well into investing Rs 1.09 crore in a property and also made him convince his friend and chartered accountant Praveen Bakshi into investing the money in his plan around five years ago.
"He promised to pay them back an additional interest of five per cent on the principal money," Singh said.
Verma told the police that he had returned Rs 98 lakh to Vasudeva as interest, but Bakshi and Vasudeva were asking for the rest of the amount, which was Rs 1.39 crore with interest, Singh said.
Verma and his mother then duped Vasudeva and sold his property for Rs 1.49 crore to a person named Imran Ali. When Vasudeva pressured him to return the money, Verma gave him blank cheques which bounced at the bank, the officer said.
The SSP said an FIR was lodged against Verma and his mother under IPC sections 420, 406, 506 at Sahibabad Police Station and he and his mother were subsequently arrested and sent to jail in 2015.
When asked about the possibility of an extramarital affair with his manager which led to the suicide, Singh refuted the claim.
"Sanjana's brothers have claimed that she was married to Vasudeva but we have not got any document or evidence to ascertain that claim. Also if she was in an extramarital relationship with him, why would she jump along with Vasudeva and his wife Parveen from the balcony," he told reporters.
On Tuesday, the society's guard had spotted the three people lying on the ground and had informed the police, who found the bodies of the children after entering the house.
Gulshan, Parveen and Sanjana were rushed to a nearby hospital where the doctors declared them brought dead. Sanjana had been living with the couple for the last six years, police had said.
The police had also found a message scrawled on a wall of the apartment, blaming Verma for putting him and his family under financial distress, which compelled him to commit suicide.
In the message, Gulshan has stated that all five of them must be cremated at one place. It also mentioned the phone numbers of Gulshan's father and brother. Some currency notes were also found pasted on the wall possibly to cover the expenditure of the cremation, police had said.
(With inputs from IANS)
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