GURUGRAM: A cousin of Pinki (23) — who was found dead with her husband, mother-in-law and a one-year-old daughter in Pataudi on Wednesday — was arrested on Thursday. Police suspect the murders to be the fallout of a family feud and a land dispute.Police said the man (24), who had lately started living with the family, was the prime suspect as he had threatened to kill Pinki’s husband Manish for allegedly beating her regularly, just a day before the murders.Investigation so far revealed Manish (28), was stabbed 25-30 times, while both his mother Fulbati (62) and daughter Charu (1) were hit on the heads with a blunt object. Manish’s wife Pinki (23) was found hanging from the ceiling of an adjacent room. The police further said it was possible that Pinki hanged herself after witnessing her cousin killing her husband, mother-in-law and one-year-old child. There was no sign of forced entry.Forensic medical expert Dr Deepak Mathur, who was part of the medical board that conducted the post-mortems, said Fulbati had multiple injuries on her head and the girl child had one injury on her head. Manish had stab wounds all over his body. “Pinki, on the other hand, had only one cut mark on her left hand and her neck was intact despite being found hanging from the ceiling,” said Dr Mathur. “It is possible that she killed herself.” Prima facie evidence suggested that the murders took place between 12 noon and 3pm on Wednesday.Village sarpanch Karan Singh said Manish’s son (3), who returned home from school around 3pm, stood in shocked silence near the blood-soaked bodies for almost four hours before a milkman came in around 7pm and raised an alarm.“The main door of the house was open. But despite repeated knocks, no one showed up at the door. Finally, the milkman went inside and found the three bodies in a pool of blood. The traumatized boy was there sobbing. He then called me and I informed the police,” Singh said. Later, a police team came and recovered the bodies from three different rooms.Based on the statements of neighbours and relatives, the police arrested Pinki’s cousin on Thursday morning. “Some neighbours claimed to have seen Pinki’s cousin coming out of the house on Wednesday afternoon with blood stains on his clothes. He will be produced before a city court on Friday,” said Gurugram police commissioner KK Rao, adding family dispute appeared to be the reason behind the murders.Another police officer said Pinki’s cousin and Manish together had bought a piece of land recently, which was also a cause behind their bitter relation.“The two apparently had a fight over the land before the murders on Wednesday. The man was under the influence of drugs at the time of the arrest, thus the police could not record his statement. We are trying to interrogate him,” he added.According to relatives, the cousin was very close to Pinki and would visit her regularly. During such visits, he had on several occasions seen Pinki and Manish, who got married in January 2013, fighting over petty issues. Pinki was pursuing her graduation from an open university and was in her final year while Manish owned a garment shop in Rewari.Apparently, after coming to know about their troubled marriage, the cousin moved to Pinki’s house around 15 days ago and started staying with the family. The villagers alleged just a day before the murders, on Tuesday, he had threatened to kill Manish and his family members, during a village panchayat that was convened after Pinki alleged that Manish beat her.Pinki’s father Ram Nivas, who works with Huda in Gurugram, however, said there was no major conflict between her daughter and her husband.“We all are shocked. There were some issues, like every other family. But those cannot be the reason for killing the entire family,” he said.Manish’s uncle Ram Nivas said they came to know about the murders only in the evening. “There are four rooms in the single-story house where Manish lived with his family. There is a vacant plot on one side of the house, while one of Manish’s brothers lives with his family in another house on the other side. But, Manish’s brother had gone to his in-laws’ place when the crime took place,” he said.Manish had two more brothers — one lives in Faridabad while the other lives in other part of the village. He also had three sisters, all are married.

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