New Delhi, July 11: Satvinder Singh and Ashwini Singh Tang, both 37 years, were childhood friends turned business partners.
But a squabble on early Friday afternoon — allegedly over profit sharing — rang down the curtain.
On Friday afternoon, Ashwini Singh Tang allegedly killed Satvinder Singh, and in his attempt to flee the scene, fell to his death, police sources said.
Police investigation and eyewitness accounts reveal that Tang reached Satvinder Singh’s L2/298 A home in Kalkaji around 12.30 pm. Singh stayed in a terrace accommodation in the house. His parents, and an elder brother stayed on the floors below. Singh’s family — his wife and two children — were not at home at that time.
An officer said Tang had carried with him a butcher knife to Singh’s home. The two partners had a brief chat in the room, officers said, and the crime scene indicated that Tang might have stabbed Singh first, in the chest.
“Knife injuries on Tang’s body also indicate that Singh stabbed him too,” an officer said.
Neighbours next heard Singh scream for help. He managed to come down the stairs, bolting the door to the terrace from inside, trapping Tang on the roof.
The next few moments have been recorded by eyewitness Amit Kullar. “I saw a bleeding Tang stagger out on the roof. I immediately called the police, who arrived soon after.”
An officer, who had studied Tang’s bloodied footprints, said: “There were a cluster of prints at one end, which indicate Tang stood here a while to assess his chances of escape. Then he walked back a few paces, and charged towards the parapet in an attempt to jump onto the roof of the adjoining building. But he slipped through the space between the two buildings, and crashed on the pavement, head first.”
By this time, the police had rushed Singh to the Majidia Hospital, where he was declared dead on arrival. His alleged murderer was taken to the AIIMS Trauma Centre, but he too was dead. The postmortems are expected on Saturday.
Officers said the furniture inside Singh’s room was in disarray, pointing at a scuffle. The television set was on and official documents, jottings of company accounts, were strewn around. The police have seized this for probe.
Singh is survived by his wife Poonam, daughter Harshita, in Class V, and son Arnab, in Class I. Both study in Summerfields School.
Later in the day, neighbours stood outside Tang’s house in 21, Rampuri, Kalkaji, talking about the two friends.
One Kamal Ahuja said: “They were very close. Singh would pick up Tang every morning and drop him back in the evening. ”
Another neighbour Amit Kapoor said the two had studied together. They ran a housekeeping company out of East of Kailash.
Tang is survived by his wife and two daughters.
–Agencies