Geeta Tomar,33, was arrested for the murder of her father-in-law, mother-in-law and brother-in-law.  She allegedly committed the crime over Rs 18 crore property dispute and was assisted by her domestic help. 

Alwar police arrested Geeta Tomar and her 24-year-old domestic help Vikas late on Friday night on charges of murdering Geeta’s father-in-law, mother-in-law and brother-in-law.(Photo: Sourced)

The 33-year-old woman, who murdered three of her in-laws in Sohna with the help of her domestic help, told police on Sunday that they got the idea for the murders from crime-based TV shows like ‘Crime Patrol’ and ‘Savdhaan India’. 

Alwar police arrested the duo — Geeta Tomar and her 24-year-old domestic help Vikas — late on Friday night on charges of murdering Geeta’s father-in-law, mother-in-law and brother-in-law.  According to the police the woman had frequent disputes with her in-laws over property worth Rs 18 crore.  Geeta, whose ‘drug addict’ husband allegedly committed suicide six months ago, stayed on the first floor of the same house as her in-laws and had been demanding a share in the property . 

“The accused used to watch TV shows like ‘Crime Patrol’ and ‘Savdhaan India’ to get ideas to commit the murder.  Geeta and Vikas discussed the crime stories and framed their plan after watching these crime-based TV shows,” said inspector Ajit Singh, SHO Ramgarh police station, Alwar. 

Vikas, who is from Rajasthan, proposed that after strangulating the victims, their bodies could be disposed by burning them.  They reportedly learnt from the TV shows that burning the bodies destroys their DNA and that would make the identification of the bodies difficult. 

The accused also told police they learnt from the shows that they should not burn the bodies at a single spot and that the areas should far apart so that it becomes difficult to identify the bodies, Singh said. 

The accused reportedly borrowed a neighbour’s vehicle for transporting the bodies as they did not want to use their own car which could have been used as evidence.  Geeta and Vikas came up with all these ideas after watching the crime-based TV shows, said the inspector. 

They burnt bodies of father-in-law, Satpal Tomar (65), a retired army officer, and mother-in-law, Pushpa (60), at Naugaon village in Rajasthan’s Alwar district.  The half-burnt body of Geeta’s brother-in-law, Pankaj Kumar (38), was found at Nagina area of Haryana’s Mewat district. 

Satpal’s daughter Hemlata Panwar, 44, claimed that the accused had allegedly threatened the victims a few days ago that they “would not be able to celebrate Diwali”. 

“We called the police control room and complained about the threat, but no action had been initiated,” Hemlata told HT on Sunday at Sohna.  She lives at Bhiwani district with her husband and two children. “ I came here after I my relatives told me that police visited my father’s house and arrested my sister-in-law.  I met my father on Thursday at 11am at Sohna bus stand as my father advised not to come to home as there had been an argument the previous night over a property dispute.  I tried calling him after I reached Bhiwani at around 6:30pm but he did not pick up,” she added. 

After the threats, Hemlata reportedly got worried and told her cousin Amit Tomar, 34, to check in on her parents. 

When Amit came to check in,Geeta told him that the victims had left home early that day and they did not inform anyone about where they were going. 

The victim’s relatives also claimed that over the last year, there had been several disputes concerning property rights among the family members.