KJ Singh murder: Accused can barely drive, say relatives

Satvir Singh (centre), the father of accused Gaurav, outside Mataur police station in Mohali Sunday. (Source: Express Photo/Kamleshwar Singh)

The family members of Gaurav — accused in the murder case of senior journalist K J Singh and his mother Gurcharan Kaur —have claimed that he could not drive properly as he hadn’t driven cars after he met with an accident nearly four years ago.

“I have been in the transport business for long, I know that Gaurav cannot drive properly. He also did not drive on long routes ever, so how he could he have taken away the car of K J Singh? Whatever driving he knew it was only because of me because I used to give him car occasionally to learn,” said Gaurav’s elder brother Rajeev alias ‘Bablu’, who came to Mohali on Sunday to meet Gaurav.

Rajeev said he met Gaurav, who is in police custody in Mohali, but could not speak to him in detail. He added that they again be in Mohali on November 1, when Gaurav’s five-day police remand will end. The family members also said that they transferred Rs 40,000 to Gaurav’s account around three months ago for a surgery.

“Gaurav called me around three months ago asking me to send Rs 40,000 as he had to undergo a surgery owing to a stomach infection. I and Gaurav had a joint bank account and I immediately transferred the money,” said Gaurav’s father Satvir Singh, who came to Mohali with Rajeev and three other relatives.

Satvir Singh told Chandigarh Newsline that he used to transfer small amounts of money to Gaurav. When asked why they did not get suspicious about Gaurav’s demand for money as he pretended to be living in Canada, Satvir Singh said they thought they were helping Gaurav and he would sent the money back to the family later. Meanwhile, police said they did not see Gaurav in the CCTV camera footage when he came to the park adjoining KJ Singh’s house in Phase 3B2.

When asked about this, Mataur Station House Officer (SHO) Inspector Jarnail Singh said that Gaurav entered from a bylane of the locality where they did not find any CCTV cameras. When asked how then the police identified five persons who were roaming in a park, Jarnail Singh said the five persons whose pictures were released were seen at the rear side of Phase 3B2 market while Gaurav was sitting in the park and he might not be captured in the CCTV as there are some trees in the parks, When asked then how they saw the men making video of KJ Singh’s house he refused to comment saying they are still questioning Gaurav.

Police had also claimed that a man had intervened when K J and Gaurav allegedly had an altercation in the park which prompted Gaurav to murder K J and his mother. When asked who intervened, Jarnail Singh said the man who intervened was yet to be identified as only K J knew him.

Meanwhile, the woman who Gaurav introduced as his “wife” in the locality where he was staying in a rented accommodation in Kajheri village in Chandigarh was sent to her native place in Ghaziabad. SHO Jarnail Singh said the woman, Lakshmi, who stayed with Gaurav for a few days using the name ‘Kajal,’ was married to a man named Amit, who had now taken her to his house in Ghaziabad.

Asked about the woman with whom Gaurav was allegedly living, his family members feigned ignorance and said that they did not know about any Lakshmi or Kajal. Gaurav’s brother Rajeev said, “He never discussed this with us, we have asked him to get married, we were also looking a bride for him but he always used to say that he did not want to get married for two more years.”