Saharanpur (UP) (PTI): 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.

Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.



Mumbai (PTI): Veteran screenwriter Salim Khan suffered a brain haemorrhage which has been tackled, is on ventilator support as a safeguard and stable, doctors treating him said on Wednesday, a day after he was admitted to the Lilavati Hospital here.

The 90-year-old, one half of the celebrated Salim-Javed duo which scripted films such as "Sholay", "Deewar" and "Don" with Javed Akhtar, is in the ICU and recovery might take some time given his age.

"His blood pressure was high for which we treated him and we had to put him on a ventilator because we wanted to do certain investigations. Now the ventilator was put as a safeguard so that his situation doesn't get worse. So it is not that he is critical," Dr Jalil Parkar told reporters.

"We did the investigations that were required and today we have done a small procedure on him, I will not go into the details. The procedure done is called DSA (digital subtraction angiography). The procedure has been accomplished, he is fine and stable and shifted back to ICU. By tomorrow, we hope to get him off the ventilator. All in all, he is doing quite well," he added.

Asked whether he suffered a brain haemorrhage, the doctor said, "Unko thoda haemorrhage hua tha, which we’ve tackled. No surgery is required.

As concern over Khan's health mounted, his children, including superstar Salman Khan and Arbaaz Khan, daughter Alvira, and sons-in-law Atul Agnihotri and Aayush Sharma, have been seen outside the hospital along with other well-wishers. His long-time partner Akhtar was also seen coming out of the hospital.

Khan, a household name in the 70s and 80s, turned 90 on November 24 last year. It was the day Dharmendra, the star of many of his films, including "Sholay", "Seeta aur Geeta" and "Yaadon Ki Baraat", passed away.

Hailing from an affluent family in Indore, Khan arrived in Mumbai in his 20s with dreams of stardom. He was good looking and confident he would make a mark in the industry as an actor. But that did not happen. And then, after struggling for close to a decade and getting confined to small roles in films, he changed lanes.

He worked as an assistant to Abrar Alvi and soon met Akhtar to form one of Hindi cinema's most formidable writing partnerships. They worked together on two dozen movies with most of them achieving blockbuster status.

Other than "Sholay", "Deewar" and "Don", Khan and Akhtar also penned "Trishul", "Zanjeer", "Seeta Aur Geeta", "Haathi Mere Saathi", "Yaadon Ki Baarat" and "Mr India".