A missing iPhone, a bitter love triangle, and a double murder: Inside the hunt for a friend-turned-killer

“When I entered the room, I saw them lying in the pool of blood… my sons were lying there… blood was everywhere,’’ she recalled. “I started screaming”. Her neighbours rushed to her aid; one of them called the Kathua police station.

Jyoti was inconsolable.

This family of three lived in a single-storey house, which was still incomplete. Built on 4-5 marlas (around 1,200 sq.ft), it has a small open lawn near the front gate to park a scooter. The other houses in the neighbourhood, too, are standalone structures — some double-storey — built on agricultural land.

Jyoti’s husband, Balbir Singh, died on December 17, 2022, at the age of 38. He was working in the Public Health Department.

Jyoti was only a homemaker, and now she had to take care of the family all by herself. For the next three years, she fought for a government job. Under a scheme run by the J&K government, a family member of an employee who dies in harness is provided employment on compassionate grounds. She eventually got the job early last year.

Her elder son, Nakul, was preparing to reappear for two Class 11 subjects that he had not cleared last year; Nikhil had passed his Class 10 examination the previous month.

Jyoti recalled the morning of May 6. “I had made breakfast for them (her sons) before leaving for work. Nakul was in his room, while Nikhil was getting dressed to go to the market,” she said.

She had no clue her world was going to fall apart soon.

“That day, I had completed one year in service,” she said, recalling that she had purchased new clothes and sweets for the boys. “Now there is nothing left”.

That Wednesday evening, when a neighbour called the police, they arrived immediately at Jyoti’s house. Nakul was dead. But they found that Nikhil, grievously wounded, was still alive. He was rushed to Kathua Government Medical College hospital and from there to the AIIMS at Vijaypura in Samba district for specialised treatment. However, five days later, he succumbed on May 11.

The police had no clues to go on, not even a whiff of suspicion against anyone. Jyoti couldn’t think of anybody who had a grudge against the family. The neighbours, too, hadn’t noticed anything unusual.

This was a blind double murder.

It was only when the police team began collecting evidence from the crime scene that they noticed a crucial detail. Nothing was missing — except Nakul’s iPhone.

The police got to work. They analysed CCTV footage of the area and other technical evidence.

Sources said the police’s Electronic Surveillance Unit (ESU) also analysed call detail records of Nakul’s phone number and traced the last call made. The recipient of that call was picked up for questioning — they said someone named Parth Verma alias Sumit had made the call.

Police now had a name. CCTV footage as well as Sumit’s mobile phone location put him in the area around the time when the brothers were attacked. This cemented their hunch that he was their suspect.

Within 24 hours, they arrested Sumit, 18, from Kathua on May 7. Nakul’s phone was also recovered from him.

Initially, police said, he denied any role in the crime. But when confronted with the call he made from Nakul’s phone to a local youth around noon — the same time the brothers were attacked — he spilled the beans, police said.

A story emerged.

Police said Sumit and Nakul had been friends for many years; they lived in adjoining neighbourhoods, Ward 9 and 10, respectively. Their names also figured in police records for minor crimes like snatching.

What was the motive for this heinous crime? According to police, the two were in love with the same girl, and Sumit had been asking Nakul to stay away from her.

They said Sumit visited Nakul’s house around 10.40 am on May 6 to discuss the issue between them. The latter was alone at home — his mother had left for work, and Nikhil had gone to the market.

The discussion, however, turned heated. The two got into a scuffle, and Sumit allegedly hit Nakul on the head with a cricket bat.

Before Sumit could escape, police said, Nikhil reached home. So, Sumit allegedly attacked him as well with the same cricket bat to ensure there was no eyewitness to the murder. Presuming both brothers were dead, the accused fled, taking Nakul’s phone with him.

For the police, the case was solved and all loose ends were tied up. Jyoti, however, sought an in-depth investigation into the murders.

She said Nakul had parted ways with Sumit after an incident a year and a half ago. Sumit and his elder brother, Pankaj Verma, had taken Nakul to the Mata Bala Sundari temple in Kathua on the pretext of an excursion. There, she alleged, the brothers snatched someone’s scooter by pointing a ‘fake’ pistol. When they were arrested, they named Nakul as the main culprit, she added.

She said a police officer had come home to see Nakul, a few days prior to his murder, asking about the whereabouts of Pankaj. In fact, Pankaj was on the run following his involvement in a gold chain theft case. Nakul later told Sumit about the police visit, she added, claiming Pankaj, too, could possibly be involved in her son’s death.

Police, however, said they have not come across any evidence pertaining to Pankaj’s role in the twin murders.

Jyoti also voiced suspicion that the brothers of the girl — who Sumit and Nakul were reportedly fighting over — could be involved. She claimed Nakul had been talking to the girl over the phone and was allegedly assaulted by her brothers last year. After that attack, Jyoti said, Nakul told her that he had severed all links with that girl. “But maybe he was still in touch with her,” she said.

The murder of these two brothers had sent shock waves across Kathua. But once the police arrested the alleged killer and closed the case, life returned to normal. “There is nothing left for me… only pain, excruciating pain,’’ she said. “My husband had already gone. Now my two sons were taken away. They were brutally killed. What is left in life for me?”