Twin murder: A week later, Chandigarh police fail to make breakthrough

A WEEK after the gruesome double murder of former journalist K J Singh and his 92-year-old mother Gurcharan Kaur, police appear to have made no progress in the case. Police have questioned several people, including members of KJ’s family, but say they are not suspects. They are also still tossing about a bunch of motives, unable to figure out if it was a crime of passion or a property dispute. The car stolen from KJ’s house, apparently, after the murder, is yet to be traced.

The entire investigation seems to hinge on the phone call analysis. Police said they had found “new” numbers in Singh’s call details that have no earlier history in the records.

“A couple of new numbers have emerged in the ongoing investigation. These are the numbers on which he had conversation recently and there was no previous history,” said Inspector General Shashi Prabha Dwivedi, chief of the Special Investigation Team.

Mohali Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Kuldeep Singh Chahal said the investigation was taking time as the police were thoroughly following the leads they got from the phone calls and other circumstantial evidence. He added that the SIT was probing the case from all angles.

Earlier, the police had ruled out robbery as probable motive behind the murders and said the investigation was focusing on the property angle. In the probe, police are also looking at any probable role of any former colleague of KJ.

KJ’s sister Yashpal Kaur, meanwhile, said the family members were cooperating with the police in the investigation, but “it is unfortunate that the family members are being projected as suspects”.

“As a member of the aggrieved family, answering any query from the police does not mean that family members were questioned specifically and should be projected as suspects,” she said, adding, “We also want the case to be solved. We are still shocked over what has happened. We want the case to be solved as soon as possible.”

The police also echoed that view. “We are questioning people only to gather information. We are doing it in a friendly manner and not treating anyone as suspect. It is all media creation to call anyone suspect,” said Dwivedi.

Asked why the police had not released sketches of a suspect made from an eyewitness’s description, the SSP said, “The man, who saw the suspects coming out of KJ’s house, was not satisfied with the sketches. So, we did not release them.”

KJ and his mother Gurcharan Kaur were found dead at their home in Phase 3B2 on September 23. While Singh was stabbed multiple times, Kaur was strangled. The assailants took away the mobile phones of both, and a TV, before escaping in KJ’s Ford Ikon. The assailants, though, did not take away the gold chain he was wearing, which made police suspect that robbery was not the motive behind the murders.