Uttarakhand: Ex-ITBP Personnel Killed By His Children Over Retirement Funds

In a bizarre incident, the children of a retired Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) commando killed their father over his retirement funds.

The police arrested the victim’s elder daughter, along with her New Delhi-based lover. The police have also arrested the son of the ex-ITBP commando’s son in connection to his father’s murder case. While the fourth accused is a minor girl, who was sent to the juvenile justice home.

“The incident took place on the intervening night of Friday and Saturday. Based on the complaint of the brother of the deceased, three accused have been booked under relevant sections of IPC and sent to jail while one 14-year-old girl was sent to juvenile justice home on Saturday evening itself,” said Vimal Prasad, Circle Officer (Sadar).

As per police, the deceased, Sunder Lal, got retired from ITBP a few months ago. His wife died nine years back and post-retirement Sunder Lal decided to settle with his younger brother Om Prakash in their ancestral village Bhangadevli in Uttarakhand’s Almora district.

Sunder Lal’s elder daughter Dimple was pursuing PhD and was living in Dehradun with her brother Ritik, who did his Master’s in Commerce. The 14-year-old daughter of the victim also lived with her siblings at a government accommodation provided by ITBP in Dehradun. As a rule, a retired employee can use government accommodation allotted to him till 6 months. The elder daughter’s lover, identified as Harsh Vardhan, also helped the siblings kill their father.

Om Prakash said his brother took “good care” of his children and used to transfer money to them in Dehradun to meet expenses.

According to the police, the accused have confessed to killing Sunder Lal over retirement funds. Sources informed that the deceased got a sum of Rs 70 lakhs during his retirement and this probably became the point of contention.

“The children said that their father was not sending money and therefore they decided to force him to settle retirement funds,” the police added.

It has been learnt that the accused on December 29 went to their village to talk about the settlement of retirement funds with their father. The argument later turned into an altercation, following which Dimple, Harsh Vardhan, Ritik and the minor killed Sunder Lal with sticks and sickle. The police have recovered the weapons.