Buried secrets: Skeleton found in Hathras home, 30 years after alleged murder

A human skeleton was discovered in a house here in Hathras, nearly three decades after the alleged murder of a man by his two sons.
Police have sent the remains for forensic analysis and are preparing to file a First Information Report (FIR) against the accused, including siblings Pradeep Kumar and Mukesh Kumar, their mother, and another unidentified individual.
The skeleton is believed to be that of Buddha Ram, who disappeared 30 years ago under mysterious circumstances.
Punjabi Singh, the youngest of Ram’s four sons, recalled hearing a violent argument between his father and two elder brothers on the night before his father vanished.
“I still remember that one night my two elder brothers, who were then in their twenties, along with another man asked me to sleep in the other room,” PTI quoted Singh, who was around nine years old at the time of the incident, as saying.
“I couldn’t sleep that night. So I decided to come out and see. That’s when I heard my brothers fighting with my father in one room. I got scared and hid in a corner,” Singh added.
The next day, Singh noticed a freshly dug hole in the porch of their house. When he asked his mother about it, she told him his father had left. For years, Singh kept these memories to himself until he shared them with another elder brother, Basti Ram, about a decade later. The two brothers then began suspecting their siblings of murder.
“After talking to him, my suspicion became firm about the role of both my eldest brothers in my father’s disappearance,” he added.
Singh claimed that he reported the case to the local police eight years ago, but the investigation was dismissed as a property dispute.
“This time we decided to approach senior officers and that resulted in the police action,” said Singh.
A police team, along with forensic experts, excavated the porch of his ancestral house on Thursday and discovered the skeletal remains.
Area Circle Officer Himanshu Mathur said that the remains have been sent for post-mortem and DNA analysis.
“We will also conduct a DNA examination on the direction of the court. The local police station is also in the process of filing an FIR against the accused,” Mathur said.