A 14-year-old daughter of a senior railway ministry official, who is posted in Delhi, shot dead her mother and teenage elder brother when they were taking an afternoon nap inside a bungalow under the Gautampalli police station limits in Lucknow on Saturday afternoon, police officials said.
After killing the two, the minor girl, who was not in a good mental health, also tried to harm herself by slitting her wrists with a razor, Lucknow commissioner of police (CP) Sujeet Pandey said.
At the time of the incident, the officer was in Delhi where he is posted. The girl has been admitted in hospital, the police commissioner said.
The police said the girl, who is a trained shooter and prolific user of weapons, used a .22 bore rifle in the crime. Director general of police (DGP) Hitesh Chandra Awasthi visited the spot.
Pandey said the girl fired three bullets—one hit a mirror and two others killed her mother and brother. He stated that the girl wrote the words ‘disqualified human’ on the washroom mirror.
This act reflected the girl’s mental instability and that she required immediate medical assistance to recover, he added.
He also said the girl was questioned before her maternal grandparents and she confessed to committing the crime. The rifle used in the crime had been recovered on the basis of her disclosure, Pandey said.
The victims’ bullet riddled bodies were found lying on a bed inside their room, he added. The girl herself alerted her maternal relatives and domestic workers about the incident.
The police commissioner said the girl’s father, who is presently posted in New Delhi, was a senior Indian Railway Traffic Services official in Northern Railway and he had held a senior position in Lucknow in the past. He was currently an executive director in the railway ministry and mostly stayed in Delhi while his family resided in Lucknow, Pandey added.
Even on Saturday, he was in Delhi and reached Lucknow late in the evening after being informed about the incident.
Pandey said the police were first informed at around 3.45 pm. The victims’ relatives were present in the house when the police reached there, he said. Two of the victims’ domestic workers had confirmed that the girl’s mother and brother were alive in the morning and they had met them then.
“We have called a team of forensic experts and a dog squad to examine the spot and further investigation is on,” the commissioner added.