A retired soldier allegedly axed to death five members of his extended family, two of them children, and set ablaze an injured child over a property dispute in their native village of Punjab’s Ambala district late Sunday. Bhushan Kumar also attempted to burn the bodies of his mother, brother, sister-in-law and two of the slain children after the frenzied burst of killings across the wall of his house near Rataur village of Naraingarh block, police said Monday.
Surti Devi (60), her son Harish (35), the latter’s wife Sonia (32) and the couple’s children Taru (5), and Mayank (five months) were apparently the first victims.
Bhushan and Harish’s wounded father Om Prakash (65) rescued a granddaughter, Pari (7), from a water tank into which she had jumped after being set ablaze. She died Monday evening at Chandigarh’s PGIMER.
Bhushan, who retired from the Army about seven years ago, lives with his wife and two sons on the other side of their divided ancestral property’s shared wall.
