Man under debt hires shooters to murder family, kills himself

A debt-ridden businessman in Madhya Pradesh’s Sagar had hired a contract killer to shoot his wife and daughter dead and later committed suicide in July, police have said.

Police in Sagar in Bundelkhand region said a patrolling team had found cement trader Brajesh Chourasia and his 16-year-old daughter Mahima dead in a car and his wife Radha, 43, with no injury marks early on July 17.

During their investigation, Chourasia’s family handed over a letter to the police in which the businessman had purportedly written in Hindi that “I am leaving and that I owe about Rs 80 to Rs 90 lakh to banks”.

Officials said they have arrested the contract killer, Ranjan Rai, a resident of Bihar, from West Bengal. Rai was paid Rs 90,000 by Chourasia for killing his wife and daughter, they added.

“During patrolling, a police team spotted a Santro car at the roadside near the Regional Transport Office at Sagar city about 1.45am on July 17,” Sagar’s superintendent of police (SP) Amit Sanghi said.

The SP also said that no weapon was found at the crime scene. Radha told the police that her husband had given something to drink to her and their daughter at home and she didn’t remember what happened after that, he added.

Sanghi said Chourasia left the two in the car and went away to wait for the shooter to do his job.

“The shooter shot dead Mahima and was about to kill Radha when he saw some people approaching. He left the scene of the crime and met the trader to tell him that he had done his job. On this, the trader said he would go to the car to check and come back,” he said.

“When the trader didn’t return for a long time, the shooter returned to the car and saw the trader was dead who had apparently committed suicide. The shooter took the weapon of Chourasia and went to West Bengal from where he was arrested by the police.”

The SP said police found out with the help of cyber cell that Rai was constantly in touch with Chourasia before his death. Phone recording also proved that Chourasia had planned the crime with Rai.

“When we tracked him down, we caught Ranjan Rai with the SIM card of Chourasia and Rs 85,000,” he added.

Rai also told the police that he had arranged two firearms - one for himself and the other for the trader. Chourasia had paid a man in Bihar for the pistols from his bank account and Rai got the firearms, said Sanghi.

“In the ballistic and toxicology reports from forensic science laboratory, it was found that the bullets recovered from the body of Brajesh and his daughter were fired from different guns. The reports also suggested that Brajesh used a weapon,” Sanghi said.