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Saharanpur: Police have recovered the bodies of five members of a family, including a couple, from a colony in the Sarsawa police station area of Saharanpur district on Tuesday morning, police said.

According to police, the deceased included a land surveyor named Ashok Rathi (40), his wife Ajanta (37), his mother Vidyawati (70), and their two sons, Kartik (16) and Dev (13).

The bodies were discovered in the same room, and three loaded pistols were found next to Ashok Rathi’s body, police said.

Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) of Saharanpur Ashish Tiwari told PTI that the police received information in the morning about the discovery of the five bodies in a room of their house in Kaushik Vihar colony in Sarsawa.

Upon receiving information about the murdered family, Saharanpur DIG Abhishek Singh, SSP Ashish Tiwari, SP Rural Sagar Jain, along with the forensic team, arrived at the scene to commence the investigation.

The SSP informed that all the deceased had gunshot wounds to the head, and that the shots were fired from very close range.

He said that the recovered pistols were identified as country-made, and an investigation is underway to ascertain whether they are licensed.

Police are currently gathering information about Ashok Rathi and his family background, as well as reviewing CCTV footage from the surrounding area, the SSP said.

The recovery of the five bodies and the pistols in the same room will be investigated from every angle, and the forensic team has also collected samples from the scene for examination, he added.

Citing the investigation so far, the SSP said that Ashok Rathi had received the land surveyor job on compassionate grounds after his father’s death and was working in Nakur tehsil. His two sons were studying in classes 10 and 11.

The police have sealed Ashok Rathi’s house to ensure that the investigation is not affected at any level.

All five bodies have been sent for post-mortem examination, police said.