Depressed over financial crisis, dad murders sons, tries to kill self

A man in Delhi’s North-west district strangulated his two sons and attempted suicide early morning on Wednesday. He later gave a call to the police and admitted to the crime. Police said that the accused seems to be under depression.

The Police Control Room received a call early in the morning on Wednesday where the caller claimed that he has murdered his two sons. A PCR van rushed to the spot in Mahendra Park area of North-west Delhi and found two dead bodies of children named Ayush Pantil (15) and Aryan Antil (8) years lying on the bed. The local police station was alerted and the accused was arrested immediately.

The accused Mukesh Antil (43) resides at the first floor of his house in Sanjay Nagar, Mahendra Park. The construction of his house landed him in a dispute with one of his neighbours Ashok Chowdhary who later filed a complaint with the civic agencies. Mukesh lost his wife Jyoti one-and-a-half-years ago after which he left his job in Gurgaon to take care of his two sons. He was also finding it difficult to make ends meet because of his financial condition.

However, the neighbours blamed Ashok Chowdhary, a neighbour of Mukesh, of the crime. “Ashok had been harassing Mukesh unnecessarily. He had regularly been demanding anywhere between Rs 2 lakh to 10 lakh to prevent the demolition of his top floor,” alleged Raj, a neighbour.

Insurance broker Ashok’s daughter Khushboo refuted the allegations and said his father only acted legally. “Ever since the construction of his house began, there was seepage into our house. So we were left with no option than to go to court,” said Khushboo.

On Wednesday early morning, when the two children were sleeping, he is said to have strangulated them using a rope and tried to slit his wrist too.

“It appears in the initial investigation that the accused was in depression due to the death of his wife, financial crises and dispute with his neighbour. We have arrested him and further investigation is on” said a senior police officer.