VADODARA/SURAT: A triple murder in New Jersey’s South Plainfield has sent shockwaves in Gujarat’s Anand district.

A 23-year-old man was arrested after he allegedly shot dead his maternal grandparents and his maternal uncle at their house.

The motive of the homicide was not known immediately.The police arrested Om Brahmbhatt for the murders of his grandparents Dilip Kumar Brahmbhatt (72), his wife Bindu, and the couple’s 38-year-old son Yash Kumar.All were pronounced dead by the South Plainfield police which had reached Coppola Drive where the family lived on Monday morning.Yashkumar, who was found injured in the house, was declared dead in the hospital.

The trio have their roots in Anand.

Dilipkumar Brahmbhatt, who had served as a police sub-inspector in Bilimora had settled in Anand after retirement.Dilipkumar Brahmbhatt, who had earlier served as a police subinspector in Bilimora town of Navsari district, had settled in Anand after retiring from the service.

He and his other family members were living in a society on Lambhvel-Bakrol Road and had moved to the US only recently to stay with their son Yash.People close to the Brahmbhatt family in Anand said that Om had relocated to the US just about 18 months ago.

They said that it was on the insistence of his maternal grandfather that Om moved to the US for further studies.Om, who is being questioned regarding the motive, was living with the victims and was found at the residence when the poli ce reached the crime spot.Cops rushed there after gunshots were reported from the area.Om has been charged with three counts of firstdegree murder and three counts of second-degree possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose.

He is being held at the Middlesex County Adult Correctional Center in North Brunswick, pending the results of a pre-trial detention hearing.The septuagenarian couple were relatives of retired deputy superintendent of police (DSP) Kirit Brahmbhatt who had shot himself dead in 2016.Kirit was older to Dilip and both siblings had their bungalows in Siddharth Kutir on the Lambhvel-Bakrol Road in Anand.In 2016, Kirit, who had also served as police inspector in both Anand and Vadodara, had shot himself with his rifle in Vallabh Vidyanagar town where he settled after retirement.