Though appalled at the brutality and the extent of the crime, the families staying in the neighbourhood of Naresh Dhankhar’s in-laws in Adarsh Nagar here said that they had seen it coming because of extremely strained relations between him and his wife for the past eight years.
“It was always on the cards. Dhankhar’s wife Seema had been staying with her parents for the past several years. She did not allow him to meet their children. He would often come to his in-laws’ with gifts and fruits for his children, but they would not even allow him inside,” said an immediate neighbour of the Dhankhar’s father-in-law Dharampal Malik, a retired Army Captain.
Empathising with the accused, a woman remarked, “Though the death of six innocent persons cannot be justified, but we also need to understand the mental state of someone who has been separated from his children and wife for long. His in-laws don’t have cordial relations with anyone in the neighbourhood. They mostly keep to themselves.”
Another neighbour, Kapil Kumar, who had alerted the police leading to Dhankhar’s arrest, remembered him as “aggressive” and “disturbed”.
‘Lost his temper’
“He would often come to meet his wife and children, but lose his cool on not being allowed inside. He would then abuse his in-laws and even the neighbours. Two years ago, Dhankhar, on one such occasion, attacked a neighbour. He would have almost killed the man, had the other neighbours not come to his rescue,” said Mr. Kumar, a manager with a two-wheeler agency. He recalled that Dhankhar came to his in-laws’ house around midnight on the intervening night of Monday-Tuesday before he went on a murder spree and hurled abuses at them and the neighbours.
“Since the neighbours were used to his ways, no one opened the door. He then returned around 5 a.m. and again started shouting. When I went out in the courtyard, he tried to sweet-talk me into opening the iron gate outside. While I was opening the gate, he attacked me with an iron rod. But he missed the target and it hit me on the arm. I, immediately, rushed inside and called the police,” said Kapil, adding that he could well be his seventh victim but had a narrow escape.
