RAWALPINDI, April 22: Police were led to the scene of murder of a man, his wife and their eldest son in New Katarian locality on Sunday and arrested the younger son for the crime.

Tariq Mehmood, 55, Tabasum Tariq, 45, and son Saad Tariq, 19, were found bludgeoned to death inside their rented house after neighbours reported to police of stinking smell coming out of the house.

Tariq Minhas, the brother-in-law of Mr Mehmood had been calling him since Sunday morning but there was no response. So he reached the house and found stench coming out of the house and informed the neighbours.

Police believed the victims were stabbed and smashed with hammer to death four or five days back and the killer(s) dumped the bodies in a windowless room to hide the crime.

Waqas Tariq, the younger son of the deceased parents and a college student, was taken into custody after evidence found from the crime scene led the police to believe that nobody else had come to the house from outside to commit the crime.

The police said during preliminary investigation, the accused confessed to killing his parents and brother. He told the investigators that due to his frequent failure in the chartered accountancy (CA) exams, his parents used to taunt him. He said he first hammered to death his father on Thursday night and then killed his mother and brother.

City Police Officer (CPO) Azhar Hameed Khokhar earlier told Dawn that the presence of the suspect inside the house after the triple murder had strengthened the police suspicion that the younger son of the couple was the main culprit.

He said in his initial statement the suspect had claimed that two persons had entered his house and murdered his family and also injured him.

“All evidences had been washed by the accused and the bodies were dumped in a room which was tightly closed,” the CPO said and added: “Had any enmity been the motive behind the triple murder, the suspect would have also been killed or injured but he remained unharmed.”

Tariq Mehmmod, who ran a joint business, was living on the first floor of the house owned by chairman Zakat and Ushr Committee Chaudhry Abdul Hameed who himself lived on the ground floor.

ASI Shaukat Mehmood, who first reached the crime scene, said: “As I entered the room, I saw clothes and other household items scattered inside and bed mattresses lying on the floor. As I removed the mattresses, I found the bodies inside.”