‘Chain snatching not a motive for scientist’s murder’

This after police recovered the gold earring,which was plucked from Singh’s left ear,near the site of the crime. “Her relatives informed us that Singh was not wearing a gold chain on Monday. Her gold earring was found near the spot of incident,” Inspector General,Kanpur Range,G L Meena told The Indian Express.

Police said if loot or chain snatching had been the motive of the assailant,he would have taken away the gold earring.

“Singh has been murdered for some other reason and our teams are working on several aspects,” Meena said.

The postmortem report confirm that the assailant first shoved the muzzle of the 315 bore country-made pistol inside Singh’s mouth and thereafter the bullet was shot. “The prima facie evidence indicate that Singh was murdered due to some personal rivalry,” Meena added.

Meanwhile,a contractor,who is constructing some rooms at the CSA’s guesthouse,said the unidentified assailant had been frequenting the campus for the last few days.

“We had spotted him earlier too but no one doubted that he was visiting the campus to murder a staff member,” said Anil Kumar Mishra.

He pointed out that the assailant was around 25-year-old and had been wearing a green check shirt on Monday evening. “After murdering Singh,he tried to snatch her gold earring and thereafter escaped by jumping the boundary wall of the institute,” he added.

On the complaint made by Singh’s husband,Anil Kumar Singh,a case of murder has been registered at Nawabganj police station against the unidentified assailant. Besides Nawabganj police,other officials have also been given the brief of solving the murder case.

Mandvi Singh was on way to her residence when she was shot dead near the guesthouse of the institute. She was murdered barely 500 metres away from her residence situated within the institute premises.

Surya Narain Singh,Mandvi’s father-in-law,denied any personal or professional rivalry of her with any individual.

“Though we reside in Gonda,I had frequent telephonic conversations with Anil and my daughter-in-law but they never informed me about rivalry or differences with any person,” he said.

“Both Singh and her husband were non-controversial persons,and over the years their performance at the CSA has been very good,” said S B L Srivastava,a professor at the institute.

Research work made Mandvi popular
Mandvi Singh joined Chandra Shekhar Azad University of Agriculture and Technology in 2003 and soon became a popular figure in the institute due to her outstanding research work on mushrooms. She was awarded Young Scientist Award by UP Council of Agriculture Research (UPCAR) in 2003-04.

Keeping in mind the excellent performance of Singh,she was given the important project on ‘Molecular characterisation of top viruses infecting fabaccous crops based on NP gene sequences.” The project was worth Rs 6 lakh and was expected to be completed by 2011.

A condolence ceremony was held at the campus on Tuesday.