Mohali twin murders: Gaurav deported from Georgia nine months ago, says immigration firm

Gaurav Kumar at District Courts in Mohali on Friday. (Express Photo by Kamleshwar Singh)

THE ACCUSED, Gaurav Kumar, arrested on charges of killing senior journalist K J Singh and his mother Gurcharan Kaur was deported from Georgia around nine months ago. This was his second visit to Georgia in the last two years, says the immigration firm whose office he claimed to have visited on the day of the murders. Police investigations revealed that Gaurav stayed for three months in Georgia and came back. Around nine months ago, he went again but was deported because of invalid documents. He was seeking a refund of Rs 50,000 from Best Careers Immigration firm that has its office in Phase-3B2, Mohali. The office is barely 400 metres from K J’s residence. This was the same immigration firm through which Gaurav had arranged his visa to go to Georgia.

“Gaurav approached us around 10 months ago. He wanted to go to Georgia on a tourist visa. We arranged his visa in a span of around one and a half month. He paid us Rs 70,000. Gaurav told us that he would get his travel tickets booked himself. He purchased the ticket for Rs 26,000. Anybody travelling to Georgia on a tourist visa also has to carry a return ticket, but Gaurav did not do so. When he landed in Georgia, he was deported from the airport as he did not have a return ticket. He returned and started accusing us of not guiding him properly. He started seeking a refund of Rs 70,000,” Amrit Kaur, manager of the immigration firm, told Chandigarh Newsline.

Asked if Gaurav visited the firm’s office on September 22 when the murders were executed, Kaur said she was unable to confirm it. “He used to come to us quite often and argue about the refund of his money. I am not sure if he visited us. The visitors’ entry register does not have any entry by Gaurav on September 22,” she said. “It is possible that he came and returned without making an entry in the visitors’ register after the receptionist might have asked him to wait.” Kaur added, “We have already given CCTV footage of that day to the police.”

Mohali Senior Superintendent of Police Kuldeep Singh Chahal said, “So far, we have not found any criminal track record of the accused. We have sent a team to Aurangabad in UP to verify Gaurav’s antecedents. As of now, it appears that he executed the twin murders alone, but we are questioning him to find out if he had any accomplice.” When contacted, the Aurangabad Station House Officer, Inspector Tej Singh, told Chandigarh Newsline that they had received information from Mohali police and they too were verifying their records to check if Gaurav had a tainted past.

The Delhi-based woman, Kajal, who was detained by the Mohali police for questioning when they nabbed Gaurav was released. “We released her since we did not find her involvement in the crime. She told us that she recently got married to Gaurav and was not aware if he had committed the crime. She claimed that she had known Gaurav for the last six months and they got married on October 7,” Inspector Jarnail Singh, incharge, Mataur police station, told Chandigarh Newsline.

Police not yet sure of motive for murders 

Although the Mohali police on Thursday claimed that Gaurav killed K J and his mother on the night of September 22 because K J slapped him the same evening, they told the Mohali court on Friday that they wanted to interrogate the accused to ascertain the exact motive behind the killing. On Friday, the Mohali police produced the accused in the court and sought his seven-day custody. The court of Civil Judge (Junior Division) Joshika remanded Gaurav in five-day police custody. The Mohali police is yet to substantiate if Gaurav had any criminal record. Gaurav is a native of a village in Bulandshahr, Uttar Pradesh. The Mohali police has contacted their counterparts in Aurangabad police station and sought details if Gaurav had any criminal track record.

In the court, Assistant District Attorney Ravinder Singh, who was representing the prosecution, sought Gaurav’s custody. The ADA pleaded in the court that the police were yet to recover an LCD screen that the accused had stolen from K J’s residence to know whether anyone else assisted the accused in committing the crime and also to know the exact motive behind the murder. The police had on Thursday recovered a TV screen that the accused allegedly stole from K J’s house after killing him. But the police on Friday told the court that he had stolen two TV screens and they were yet to recover the second one.

“Although the accused claims that he killed K J because he was slapped, we want to interrogate him to find out if there was any other reason behind the gruesome killing. We shall be interrogating him thoroughly to find if there was any other motive,” Inspector Jarnail Singh, who produced Gaurav in the court, told Chandigarh Newsline. Police to quiz man known to accused

Family members of one Surinder Kumar, a resident of Kajheri, came to Mataur police station to look for him as he was picked up by the local police in connection with the twin murders of K J Singh and his mother Gurcharan Kaur. Surinder’s elder brother Dharminder Singh said that a police team from Sector 61, Chandigarh police post, had picked up Surinder three days ago and the police told them that they handed Surinder over to Mataur police. Dharminder said they came to the Mataur police station but the police said that they wanted to question Surinder as he knew Gaurav, the accused in the murder case.