Mohali: A suspect in the murder of senior Journalist KJ Singh and his mother have been arrested by the Mohali police on Thursday.
According to the Police, the man arrested is identified as Gaurav Kumar, a resident of Bulanshahr.
Senior Journalist K J Singh and his mother Gurcharan Kaur were found murdered on 22 September in their residence in Phase-3B in Mohali. The incident came to light the next day when KJ’ sister and nephew Ajay Pal Singh found the dead bodies.
The police is said to have recovered K J’s Ford Ikon car, TV, two mobiles phones of K J and Gurcharan Kaur, a set top box, a DVD player, K J’s three ATM cards and a tele-flash from suspect Gaurav’s possession.
Kuldeep Singh Chahal, Senior Superintendent of Police, said on 22 September Journalist K J had slapped Gaurav after a verbal spat between the two.
He said, “Gaurav was sitting on a bench in the park adjacent to K J’s house. K J found him suspicious and questioned him, which led to an argument. Gaurav told us that K J slapped him and asked him to go away from there. He left the place but later returned with a knife and killed K J and his mother Gurcharan Kaur”.
“Since he was arrested a few hours ago, we are yet to interrogate him thoroughly. We also need to find out if he executed the murders alone or whether he had any accomplices,” said SSP Chaha.
According to the Police, suspect Gaurav(27), a resident of Kajeri village Chandigarh was waiting in Phase 3B2 for the concerned person from the Immigration office that owed him 50,000 rupees near KJ’s residence.
He is reported to got into an argument with KJ while waiting in the park.
The Police said after being slapped by K J, Gaurav left the park. He returned back around 10.30 with a knife he purchased from a nearby market.
“He scaled the boundary wall of K J’s residence and rang the doorbell twice and took cover in the dark. The moment K J opened the door, Gaurav attacked him. Since K J too was a tall and well-built man, he resisted the attack. Gaurav was carrying a knife and stabbed K J multiple times. Gaurav kept on stabbing K J till he fell on the ground. To ensure K J dies, Gaurav slit his throat. While attacking K J, Gaurav realized that Gurcharan Kaur had also woken up because of the commotion. Gaurav killed her as well,” said SSP Chahal.
Gaurav after killing KJ and his mother ran away stealing their two mobile phones, K J’s three ATM cards, TV, set-top box, a tele-flash, DVD player, and kept them in K J’s car.
His arrest was made after the Mohali police recovered K J’s Ford icon car that was reported missing, was being driven by the accused on the road to Mohali Airport on Thursday when he was intercepted by a Police vehicle near Gurdwara Shaheedan.
ASI Ajay Pathak in-charge of PCR vehicle 26 said, “We were patrolling the road and going towards Mohali Airport. About 10.30-11 am, a green colour Ford Ikon car crossed us. I found the registration number of the vehicle suspicious. It was PB-64-A-0164. Mohali’s vehicle registration code is PB-65. Since we also had information about a missing Ford Ikon car bearing the same colour, we chased the car and intercepted it near Gurdwara Shaheedan.”
SSP Chahal added, “When ASI Pathak asked Gaurav (who was driving the car at that time) to produce his driving license or vehicle’s registration documents, he could not. Gaurav could neither tell from where he purchased the car nor could he produce his driving license or any document establishing his ownership of the car. PCR team searched the car and found a car-service slip in the name of K J. They informed us and handed him over to us”.
Gaurav after his arrest confessed to the murder during his interrogation by the Crime Branch investigating the case.
The Crime branch also retrieved the stolen items from KJ’s residence.
According to the sources the Police also recovered the murder weapon used to commit the crime. Police also found wrapper of the Kitchen knife used to murder in the park near KJ’s house apart from the mud-stained footprints found at the crime scene.
Investigating officer said, “The knife was also recovered from his house at Kajheri village”.