3 cellphones dunked in water may hold key to triple murders, suicide

Gurgaon: Three cellphones that belonged to the Singh family could hold the key to the investigation into the baffling triple murders and suicide that wiped out an entire family — Prakash Singh (50), his wife Sonu, daughter Aditi and son Aditya.
But like everything else about the case, getting information from the phones will be complex: the phones were found dunked in water in a plastic container in the Singhs’ house at Uppal Southend.
Investigators believe Prakash Singh (50) collected the phones and tried to destroy their contents after murdering his wife, daughter and son on Sunday night. The words he wrote in a note, retrieved from his trouser pocket, that he “could not take his family along”, has further pointed investigators towards a personal rift he may have been feeling with the rest of his family, and the contents of the phone could throw light on that.
Singh attacked his 22-year-old daughter Aditi, a Jamia Millia Islamia student, first before turning to his wife Sonu (48) and son Aditya (12). The autopsy report suggests the 50-year-old used a hammer and knife to attack the three and the killings happened between Sunday midnight and 2am (Monday).
From evidence gathered from the house, investigators believe Singh covered the bodies, collected the mobile phones, filled a container with water and dunked the phones. He then washed his hands and wrote the note before hanging himself from the ceiling fan in the ground-floor house’s dining area. What triggered his violent and brutal act is a mystery for police, who are now pinning hope on cyber experts to retrieve data from the phones.
“So far, nothing conclusive has come up. We are focusing on technical investigation. Call details of the family are expected to come in a day and it may help,” said ACP (Sadar) Aman Yadav.
Senior police officers said prima facie, everything seemed “normal” about the family. Prakash was supposed to join a new company in a couple of weeks while Sonu was preparing for the four schools she ran — through her NGO Apni Pathshala — to reopen after the vacations. Sonu had, a few days ago, directed school employees to finish painting and cleaning the classrooms.
On June 28, Sonu, who was part of a Buddhist group at Uppal Southend, had organised a prayer meet at the house of another member and seemed fine. “She had come to my house for the prayer meet. Everything was normal and there was no sign of any trouble or disturbance,” said the prayer meet’s host, who asked not to be named. She said Sonu led the group and regular meetings were organised at her place.
RK Mathur, the Singhs’ next-door neighbour, said people used to frequent Sonu’s house for prayer meets and friends of Aditi would visit as well. “They were like any other normal family,” said Mathur, adding the incident had come as a shock for everyone.
The ground-floor house, which was bought on EMI, is now in police custody as no one from the family had turned up since the bodies were taken for autopsy on Monday. The sisters of Sonu and Prakash and their family members performed the last rites at a crematorium in Sector 39. The two families were ill at ease in each other’s presence but they agreed that Prakash, Munna to his family, and Sonu had never shown any sign of trouble.
“Prakash and Sonu were very bright and both were gold medalists from BHU,” said a family member. Prakash’s father died several years ago and his mother passed away last September. A few of Prakash’s former colleagues from Sun Pharmaceuticals, where he worked as R&D head, visited Uppal Southend. “He was very polite and had cordial relations with people. He never raised his voice. It is hard to believe he would do something like this,” said a former colleague, asking not to be named.
Police said Prakash had started a company to supply medicines in partnership with a Gujarat-based person. They had even hired a few medical representatives and were planning to start their own pharmaceutical company. But the medicine supply business wasn’t doing well — large quantities of unsold stock was found in the house.
Investigators said it seemed Prakash had trouble sleeping as he was taking pills.