Two Delhi Police constables are posted outside the three-storey house round the clock, while four CCTV cameras cover its gate and the lane around it.Deepika, 27, her mother and her sister-in-law live in this house. There is no man left — two have been killed and another is in jail.“Delhi Police wale subah aate hain aur shaam ko chale jaate hain. Kabhi rehte hain, kabhi nahi. Lekin unki zaroorat nahi hai, kyunki unke rehne ka koi fayda nahi hai. Shooters ko jab marna hoga, tab woh kisi ko bhi maar sakte hain (The Delhi Police personnel come in the morning and leave in the evening. Sometimes they stay, and sometimes they don’t. But there is no need for them to be there, because their presence serves no purpose. If the shooters intend to kill someone, they can kill anyone).” Vijay’s wife Ritu at the family home in South Delhi’s Aya Nagar village. (Express Photo by Afshana Ali)“I don’t know when they will shoot me as well,” she added.On November 30 last year, Deepika’s father, dairy businessman Ratan Lohia, 55, was killed — he was shot 70 times — near the house while on his way to open his milk dairy shop. On September 13 this year, her cousin Vijay was shot dead outside the gym he ran about a kilometre away. Two shooters arrived on a motorcycle, fired 11 bullets at him and fled.Story continues below this adPolice suspect the killings are linked to a feud between two families — Ratan and Rambir — in the urban village on the Delhi-Gurgaon border.The trigger: a dispute over garbage collectionIt began after Deepika’s brother Deepak was allegedly assaulted by Arun, Rambir’s son, over a dispute related to the locality’s garbage-collection business.According to residents, the narrow lanes in the interiors of the village are too small for garbage-collection vans to enter. Contractors therefore collect garbage door-to-door, earning lakhs of rupees every month.“Arun beat up my brother following their financial dispute. Deepak remained in hospital for six months. When he recovered, he wanted an apology from Arun, but Arun never apologised. Arun and his family, however, offered him Rs 20 lakh, but my brother refused to take the money,” Deepika said.Story continues below this ad A mini-bus remains parked outside Vijay’s residence. (Express Photo by Afshana Ali)Panchayat and old members of the community of Aya Nagar also tried to resolve the issue then, but nothing helped.“Whenever Deepak would go to pursue his assault case in court, Arun and his friends used to threaten him and pressure him to withdraw the case,” she added.Then Arun was killed.According to the police, he was shot dead near Chhattarpur Metro Station while returning from a court hearing in connection with the case relating to the assault on Deepak in May last year.Deepak and Vijay’s elder brother Ajay were later arrested for allegedly killing Arun.Story continues below this adArun’s family, Deepika alleges, then targeted her father and cousin in retaliation.“… My father was killed at 6 am when he was going to open his milk dairy shop. He used to wear a bulletproof jacket. He knew he could be the target of Arun’s family as he was receiving threats. He wrote to the DCP, the Lieutenant Governor and the Police Commissioner, but the police never provided him any security, then,” she alleged.Deepika, growing emotional, said Vijay was innocent and had no involvement or any link with Arun’s murder. “Had the police acted when Arun and his friends beat up my brother Deepak in early 2025, no one would have been killed,” she alleged. The road leading to Aya Nagar village along the Mehrauli-Gurgaon Road. (Express Photo by Afshana Ali)Half a kilometre away, Arun’s home has remained shut. His father is now in jail.Story continues below this adA police officer said that during the investigation, it was found that Rambir had allegedly financed and executed Ratan’s murder with the help of his other son staying abroad.Deepika claimed Rambir was a wealthy man who owned substantial property in the village.In the Ratan murder case, police had earlier arrested five people, including Arun’s uncle, Kamal, a resident of Faridabad. Police said Kamal was among four shooters allegedly arranged by foreign-based gangsters Himanshu Bhau and Neeraj Faridpuria, along with western Uttar Pradesh-based criminal Randeep Bhati.Another family lives in fearThe Delhi Police has now provided security to all three families. A mini-bus remains parked outside Vijay’s residence, while police personnel have been deployed in the narrow lanes for almost 24 hours a day.Story continues below this adAt Vijay’s home, his wife Ritu broke down while recalling their last phone conversation.“We spoke half an hour before his death. He told me to prepare breakfast as he would be returning soon from the gym,” she told The Indian Express.“He would leave the house every morning at 4.30 am and return at 10.30 am. In the evening too, he would go to his gym.”They were married for five years.She said Vijay stayed away from his family because of the feud. “He never went to meet his elder brother Ajay in jail or in court. He never pursued his case either. Despite that, he was killed,” Ritu said.Story continues below this ad“Ajay’s wife is my sister,” she added. “But after he was involved in Arun’s murder, we did not even speak because of the fear.”Chaman Kumar, the elder brother of Ajay and Vijay, said the family continued to receive threats. “Since the day my brother was killed, I have not resumed my work because of the fear and threats,” said Chaman, an Eeco van driver. Vijay’s two storey house in the narrow lane of Aya Nagar. (Express Photo by Afshana Ali)He said the family does not have enough money to survive. “We have only this ancestral house, which is already divided among three brothers. One is dead and another is in jail. The wives and children of both my brothers stay here. We don’t know who could be next. They have already started shooting innocent people. Kab mera bhi number aa jaye (“Who knows when it might be my turn too),” he said.Police said Vijay’s murder was also suspected to have been carried out by shooters allegedly arranged by Himanshu Bhau and Neeraj Faridpuria. They have arrested a person from Aya Nagar who allegedly provided shelter to the shooters before they went out to carry out the killing.Story continues below this adFeud playing out in a changing villageAya Nagar, surrounded by farmhouses and high-end markets along the Mehrauli-Gurgaon Road, is a village of around 50,000 people.A large part of its population belongs to the Gujjar community, whose traditional occupations included dairy farming and cattle rearing. Over time, many residents converted their houses into multi-storey buildings in response to growing demand for accommodation from migrants working in Gurugram. Residents also began renting out their houses.The feud between the families has unfolded within this tightly packed neighbourhood, where all three houses are located within a radius of around half a kilometre.“Had the families been staying in other villages or in different areas, this might not have happened. Ek hi raaste se jaana hai aur ussi se aana hai,” said a shopkeeper who runs a general store from the ground floor of his house.The shopkeeper has also rented out rooms as paying-guest accommodation to people working for multinational companies in Gurugram.Back at the Lohia home, Deepika said they had sent some family members away.“We have sent away Deepak’s son and my younger brother so they can escape this insane feud,” she said.“I am pursuing these cases, and they are on a spree of shooting innocent people as well.”