11 months on, cops search for missing links in property dealer’s murder

JAIPUR: Almost 11 months have passed since property dealer Bhawani Singh (45) was shot dead at the threshold of his Jhotwara house in a blistering gun fire by two assailants, who fled with lightning speed leaving behind a trail of terror, mystery and sloppy investigation.

With the change of guards in Jaipur police, the newly appointed officials told TOI that the Bhawani Singh murder case’s file has been called back from the



Jhotwara police station to determine why exactly the investigation came to a suspicious standstill. The newly appointed DCP (West) Vikas Sharma, himself visited the spot upon taking over the charge and said that case is being probed afresh.

The case FIR states that at 7.30pm on March 8, 2018, Bhawani Singh was resting inside his bedroom on the first floor of his house when somebody rang the doorbell of the main gate. When Singh used his door phone to speak to the person who rang the bell, the latter replied he was a courier boy and had come to deliver a packet to Singh.

“As soon as my father reached downstairs to get the packet from the courier, there was a loud explosion. We also heard our pet dog barking,” Singh’s son Kirti Vardhan Singh stated in his FIR to the Jhotwara police station.

Singh was bleeding profusely when his son and wife ran downstairs. His neighbour rushed him to a nearby hospital in a car, a few minutes later he succumbed to injuries. Kirti Vardhan Singh in his FIR to the police alleged that his father had a protracted financial dispute with Shankar Khandelwal.

The family members had suspected that Bhawani Singh was murdered by Khandelwal as the latter nursed an old vengeance against Singh due to the business-related rivalry. An official admitted that despite the family naming Shankar Khandelwal, who had been in the past involved in the Syndicate bank-fraud, the Jhotwara police did not properly interrogate him.

Interestingly, the case was investigated by the tainted Jhotwara ACP Aash Mohammad who is himself currently on the run in a corruption case. “More than 50 suspects were quizzed in the case, but it has come to our notice that the prime suspect was not interrogated about the nature of financial dispute he had with Bhawani Singh,” an official said wishing anonymity, adding that even as the police search for the missing links in the case, the sleuths are zeroing in on the bike used by the two assailants to kill Singh.

Bhawani Singh’s wife alleged that the local police had shielded the main accused in the case so that killers could not be identified. “For last one year I have been running pillar to post. The very moment he was shot dead, we had told cops about the main culprit. Each time we went to speak to the ACP , they kept us waiting for two hours before giving the same reply that the investigators are not able to connect any links,” said,Singh’s wife, adding that their fight for justice will not stop.

The family said that they have approached the Rajasthan Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) as they suspect some nexus between cops and killers.

The cops, however, admit that while probe is continues, the case is proving to be a hard nut to crack. “When a significant time period has passed, it is not easy to track down the accused. But we are making efforts to at least accelerate the investigation now,” an official said.