Without police verification, Mohali double-murder accused worked as security head of Noida RWA

The Sector 36 RWA had hired Kumar in May 2024 as a security guard without verifying his antecedents or checking with police, and had quickly promoted him to head of security and subsequently, manager of the RWA.

On Saturday evening, office-bearers of the Sector 36 RWA told The Indian Express that they had hired Kumar on “trust”.

Singh, known as KJ to his friends and professional peers, was a popular and widely respected journalist who had worked as an editor with The Indian Express in Chandigarh.

KJ and his mother Gurcharan Kaur were killed in their home on the night of September 22-23, 2017, allegedly by Kumar, who had had an argument with the journalist earlier that day.

“Initially hired as a security guard, he (Kumar) was later promoted to head of security and then to manager of the RWA. Shockingly, the RWA never conducted any background verification, and were unaware that their manager was a wanted double-murder accused,” Naveenpal Singh Lehal, DSP Special Crime Cell & Nodal Officer, PO Wing, under whose supervision the Mohali Police carried out the arrest, told The Indian Express in Mohali.

Kumar was hired as a security guard in the beginning of May 2024 from one Pandey Security Agency, Sector 36 RWA president Anita told The Indian Express on Saturday. “After I became president of the RWA in October 2023, we began to think of revamping the security of the community, and to open all four gates of the RWA area,” she said.

According to Anita, the RWA usually consults other RWAs in the area on hiring a suitable security agency. “Pandeyji [who runs the Pandey Security Agency] had worked for us earlier, and so when he suggested Gaurav’s name, we hired him,” she said. Anita was unable to provide the full name of “Pandeyji”, or his contact details.

Asked why the RWA had not verified Gaurav Kumar’s background, the RWA president said the relationship with the security agency was based on “trust”. “The security agency had stressed that they had conducted a verification at their end, and that there was nothing to worry,” she said.

Anita and the RWA vice president Ashoo Sharma said they had learnt of Kumar’s alleged involvement in the murder eight years ago only after the Noida Police asked them to visit the police station.

“He (Kumar) was handcuffed,” Sharma said. “I had spoken to Gaurav only some time ago about an issue of concern to the society.”

Mohali Police had registered a case against Kumar on September 23, 2017, under sections of the IPC including murder. A few days after KJ and his mother were killed, Kumar was caught driving the journalist’s stolen Ford Ikon car. According to details of the investigation, police recovered a mobile phone, an ATM card, a TV, a DVD player, and a set-top box from his possession.

RWA president Anita said a large number of residents of Sector 36 are elderly and retired individuals. Several residents told The Indian Express that Kumar’s active involvement in the RWA’s affairs led them to trust him. “He would ride around the neighbourhood on his bike, and took care of everything from pruning trees to the disposal of garbage,” a resident, who requested anonymity, said.

Asked about the police verification of security guards and domestic workers in the area, an official of the Sector 39 police station, the jurisdiction of which extends to Sector 36, said the FIR in the case had been registered in Mohali. “We conduct verification through the Crime and Criminal Tracking Network and System (CCTNS),” the official said.