The mystery behind the triple murder of a ‘bhajan singer’ and his family in Shamli was solved on Wednesday with a startling disclosure of the fourth murder of the 10-year-old son.

‘Bhajan singer’ Ajay Pathak was murdered along with his wife and daughter in Shamli on Monday while his 10-year-old son Bhagwat was reported as missing. The dead body of Bhagwat has been recovered from Panipat, Haryana on Wednesday from the singer’s car.

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Rajesh Kumar Srivastava, Additional SP Shamli, told, “Ten-year-old Bhagwat, son of Ajay Pathak who was murdered along with his wife, 36, and daughter, 18, on Monday was found dead inside the burning car of the victim near Panipat toll plaza.”

Confirming the arresting of accused Himanshu Saini, the ASP said that he was caught from the spot while he was running away after setting the car on fire. Mobile phones of the victims, weapon (Kirpan) used for the murder and blood stained clothes were also recovered from the possession of the accused. Himanshu had killed the 10-year-old and other victims on the same night and was running away along with the car.

Addressing a press conference, Vineet Jaiswal, SP Shamli, said that Saini was a disciple of ‘bhajan’ singer Ajay Pathak who had taken a loan of Rs 60,000 from Saini in small instalments in view of some financial crises. When Saini used to ask Ajay to return his money, he used to humiliate him instead of paying back the debt.

According to the SP, during the investigation, the police came to know from many neighbours of the singer that the last person who was seen entering the victim’s house was Himanshu. He even had dinner with the family and afterwards asked for his money but Ajay humiliated him.

An enraged Himanshu than planned to seek revenge and murdered the entire family using a ‘Kirpan’ that Ajay used to keep with himself. “Saini murdered Ajay Pathak,42, his wife Sneha,36, daughter Vasundhara,18, and son Bhagwat,10, on Monday and fled from the spot along with the victim’s car and his 10-year-old son,” said the police sources.

The murders came to light on Tuesday evening when the neighbours suspected something wrong as they didn’t see the victims the whole day and managed to look inside the house through the windows.