LAHORE, June 22: Police on Sunday exhumed the bodies of a woman, her two daughters and an infant granddaughter from an under-construction house in Johar Town, where they had allegedly been buried by the woman’s husband and a son-in-law.

One Ramzan had filed an application with Sadar division police SP Raja Riffat two days ago that his daughter, Sakina (45), her two daughters, Seema (21) and Humaira (2) and Seema’s 20-day-old daughter were missing from their house in Islampura.

Mr Ramzan said he had been repeatedly asking his son-in-law Peeran Gujjar about his daughter and the other missing persons. “On one occasion Peeran said the family members had been sent to Rawalpindi on a job and on another claimed that they had gone to visit relatives.”

The police then took Peeran Gujjar into custody and interrogated him. He allegedly confessed to killing the four people and burying their bodies in the under-construction house.

Peeran told the police he had married off his daughter Seema to his nephew Shaukat Ali of Kasur some eight months ago. She gave birth to a baby girl hardly six month after the marriage, he said.

Peeran said his son-in-law brought his daughter and the neonate to him and sought his suggestion, as “we both agreed that the baby was illegitimate”.

“We then planned the killings,” Inspector Ikraam quoted him as saying. He took the four family members along to a house in Johar Town where he worked as a gardener. He and Shaukat took them to an under-construction house adjacent to the one where Peeran worked. The victims had been administered some sedative, before they reached the place, Peeran said.

“On reaching the house, he and Shaukat strangled all the four family members, who had fallen unconscious. The two dug the floor of the house and buried the bodies,” the police said.

The bodies were removed to the city mortuary for an autopsy.

“We have no regrets,” Peeran told reporters in police custody. He said he did what should have been done. He claimed that he often asked his wife to restrain strangers from visiting his house, but she never listened to him.

When asked why he had killed his younger daughter, he replied there was all likelihood that she would follow in the footsteps of her elder sister and mother. “I was not in my senses. Who knows whether she was mine or belonged to someone else.”

Further investigation was under way, said the police and claimed that raids were being conducted for the arrest of Shaukat.

A murder case has been registered against the accused.