The Ghaziabad police on Monday arrested a pharmacy owner who allegedly supplied ‘prohibited drugs’ and sleeping pills to software engineer Sumit Kumar, accused of killing his wife and three minor children in their flat in Indirapuram on late Saturday night.
Kumar laced the cold drink of his wife and three minor children with sleeping pills before allegedly murdering them in his flat at in Indirapuram’s Gyan Khand 4.
The bodies of Sumit’s wife Anshu Bala and their three children were found from the flat after Sumit fled and claimed in a video that he murdered them after lacing their cold drinks. Sumit later sent the video to his brother Amit Kumar on WhatsApp and also told him that he bought potassium cyanide from the medical store owner for Rs 22,000 to kill himself.
“We have arrested the pharmacy owner, who was operating the shop without a license. He and Sumit had been acquainted for the past year, and he supplied him medicines, which fall under the category of narcotics. The owner was arrested and a separate FIR was lodged against him after an inspection was conducted by the police and a team of the drugs department,” Shlok Kumar, superintendent of police (city), said.
The pharmacy owner Mukesh Kumar, 40, ran the shop under the name, Hukum Medical Store, in Nyay Khand 3 in Indirapuram, which is barely 300 to 400 metres away from Sumit’s flat in Gyan Khand 4.
“The shop owner said that he had not renewed his license after the year 2000. He could not produce any further documents. We seized a stock of about 70-80 medicines and another 3-4 medicines that fall under the category of narcotics, which cannot be used without a prescription,” Junab Ali, drug inspector, said.
Mukesh Kumar was booked for under the Indian Penal Code’s sections for cheating (420) and personation (419), as well as under provisions of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, and the Drugs and Cosmetics Act at Indirapuram police station.
The police got wind of the exact pharmacy from the video which Sumit sent to his brother.
“I have murdered my family and their bodies are in my flat. I did this as I had no way to sustain my family. There are loans to the tune of lakhs of rupees. I was addicted to drugs and even now... I got supplies from Hukum Medical Store. I bought sleeping pills from the store and also purchased potassium cyanide for Rs 22,000. He arranged it for me,” Sumit said in the video.
“The store owner fleeced me a lot due to my addiction. In retaliation, I duped him for Rs 1 lakh by withdrawing money from his account using mobile banking. Now, I am going to kill myself after sending the video....,” he added.
The police said Sumit could not be found till Monday evening, but several teams are trying to trace him. He left his job in December last year.
“The company he was working with in Bengaluru had moved the process to a higher platform. They told Sumit to upgrade his skills but he had no money to take advanced course. So, he had to leave the job. He then came home to Ghaziabad,” Manish Kumar, Anshu’s brother, said.
“My sister was also trying to sustain the family and had been working for the past one-and-half years. We are shocked over the developments,” he added.
Police officers suspect it was his drug addiction that led to his unemployment and loans, which culminated in Sumit committing the murders.
“During searches, we recovered a small quantity of drugs from his flat. We have alerted the railway and other authorities of neighbouring districts about the man. Our teams are also working to trace him,” Shlok Kumar said.
First Published: Apr 23, 2019 15:17 IST
