The cylinder exploded injuring 11 policemen, Rahul and his neighbour.
Highlights
- Rahul Mata stabs father to death, attacks mother in Delhi home
- As police arrive, Rahul sets fire to gas cylinder
- 13 including policemen injured in gas cylinder explosion
At an apartment in east Delhi, horror unraveled on Sunday afternoon as a former merchant navy sailor allegedly stabbed his father over 30 times, attacked his mother and blew up the flat, leaving several, including policemen, injured.
Around 2.30 pm on Sunday, Rahul Mata allegedly stabbed his father RP Mata, a retired financial sector employee, repeatedly with a knife at their home in Madhu Vihar. According to some accounts, he chased his father, who tried to crawl to safety.
Then he turned on his mother Renu Mata and attacked her with the same knife as she tried to save her husband.
Alarmed by the screams from the fourth floor apartment, neighbours and security guards of the Ajanta housing society came to the door and tried to open it. Rahul Mata, believed to be in his 30s, allegedly started threatening them.
People outside the Ajanta Apartments where the man has set the gas cylinder on fire.
When a police team arrived at the flat, Rahul locked himself up in the kitchen and allegedly set the cooking gas cylinder on fire. In the huge explosion, 11 policemen, Rahul and a neighbor were injured. The alleged killer was then held and overpowered by policemen. The explosion also partly damaged the neighbouring apartment.
"As soon as the police team reached his flat, Rahul locked himself in the kitchen and opened the cylinder's knob to release the gas. He set the cylinder on fire when the police team tried to break open the door," Deputy Commissioner of Police Omvir Singh told the IANS news agency.
"Despite their injuries, my officers acted bravely and overpowered him. Had they (the policemen) not caught him, he would have killed other persons," the official said.
Rahul Mata was allegedly notorious in the neighbourhood and was accused of harassing women. His father recently put out an advertisement in a newspaper announcing that he has disowned him.
(with inputs from IANS)