The Ghaziabad police on Tuesday morning recovered the bodies of a married couple lying next to their car that was parked in an isolated area in Kamla Nehru Nagar, near the Delhi-Hapur Road.
After a prima facie investigation, police said both bodies had gunshot wounds to the head, allegedly fired from close range from the same weapon. Going by the nature of injuries, police said it appeared that the man shot dead his wife and then killed himself.
According to police, they received information about the two bodies around 7.30am and launched an investigation with the help of forensics and field units. They identified the deceased as Vinod Chaudhary, 35, and his wife, Deepak Chaudhary, 34, who were married for the past 13 years and resided in nearby Mahindra Enclave in Shastri Nagar. Their bodies were recovered from near their Maruti S-Cross car, police said.
The police said they also recovered mobile phones of the deceased persons and also a countrymade weapon and cartridge from the spot.
“According to initial investigation and circumstantial evidence, it appears that the man got out of the car and shot his wife in the head from outside. A gunshot mark on the window glass indicates this. She was in the co-driver seat. Then he pulled her out of the car and probably shot himself in the head. We used their mobile phones to locate their family and inform them,” said Abhishek Srivastava, assistant commissioner of police (Kavi Nagar).
The police said the couple had a daughter aged 12 and son aged six years. The man was employed with a company in Greater Noida and lost his job about five years ago. He was living on the substantial agricultural business income of his family who hails from Muzaffarnagar.
The ACP said the man suffered from kidney stones about two years ago and was cured of it. About five months ago, he developed an infection in the kidneys and liver and remained upset that he might not be able to recover, he said.
“The infection was not life-threatening but he went into depression over it. His family told us that he did not sleep at night and had been trying to procure a weapon since the past 10-12 days. His family took him for a psychiatrist consult but he did not the prescribed medicines. Three days ago, their children saw a weapon in his car. The couple probably left their house around 10.30pm Monday night and there was no response when family and neighbours called them around midnight. We suspect that about 2-3 rounds were fired from the weapon,” Srivastava said.
“Both the bodies were sent for autopsy and both had firearm injury. The family of the man told us that he used to become aggressive in the evening. Based on circumstances, it appears that the man shot his wife and later shot himself. Further investigation is underway,” said Kunwar Gyananjaya Singh, deputy commissioner of police (city).
The police said an FIR will be lodged if the family gives a police complaint, else, the police will take suo motu cognizance and register a case.