Ex-Army Officer Allegedly Kills 6 In Haryana, Seen On CCTV Before Murders

Palwal, Haryana:  A former army officer has been arrested for allegedly bludgeoning to death six people in Haryana's Palwal within a span of an hour. All the six murders took place between 2:30 am and 3:30 am. Though the man is in custody, Palwal, a town 80 km from Delhi, has been put on high alert and residents have been asked not to venture out of doors.

The police said they suspect the man Naresh Dhankad, is mentally unstable. A lieutenant in the army, he had taken voluntary retirement in 2003 on medical grounds and is currently in his 40s, the police said.  

Last night, around 2.30 am, he was caught on CCTV while entering the local government hospital. Dressed in a blue sweater and white trousers, he is seen moving through what looks like a hospital corridor. In the video released by the police, he is seen holding an iron rod and looking around.
 The murder, which the police now say was the first, took place within minutes. The victim was a 35-year-old woman, who had come to attend to a relative. She was found stretched out outside the Intensive Care Unit on the first floor of the hospital.

The next three murders took place in rapid succession -- the men were security guards and beggars who were found outside the hospital. The last victim was a security guard.

"Police found all the dead bodies within a radius of two to three km. It looks like he committed the murders in an hour," a police officer told reporters. At least one of the murders took place near a police station.  

The police, who identified him from the CCTV footage, finally caught up with him in Adarsh Nagar -- an area close to the hospital -- and managed to overpower him after a struggle. He was first taken to the Civil Hospital in the district and later referred to a hospital in Faridabad. He has now been shifted to Delhi's Safdarjung Hospital as his condition worsened.