THE MOHALI Police on Thursday claimed to have solved the murder of senior journalist K J Singh and his mother Gurcharan Kaur with the arrest of a native of Bulandshahr, Uttar Pradesh, who has been identified as Gaurav Kumar. The mother-son duo were murdered at their residence in Phase-3B2, Mohali, on the night of September 22. Their bodies were discovered by K J’s sister Yashpal Kaur and nephew Ajay Pal Singh the next day. The police also recovered from Gaurav’s possession K J’s Ford Ikon car, TV, two mobiles phones of K J and Gurcharan Kaur, a set top box, a DVD player, K J’s three ATM cards and a tele-flash. Senior Superintendent of Police Kuldeep Singh Chahal said K J had slapped Gaurav after a verbal altercation on September 22. “Gaurav was sitting on a bench in the park adjacent to K J’s house. K J found him suspicious and questioned him, which led to an argument. Gaurav told us that K J slapped him and asked him to go away from there. He left the place but later returned with a knife and killed K J and his mother Gurcharan Kaur,” SSP Chahal told mediapersons. “Since he was arrested a few hours ago, we are yet to interrogate him thoroughly. We also need to find out if he executed the murders alone or whether he had any accomplices,” SSP Chahal told Chandigarh Newsline. The murder Gaurav, 27, had been staying in a rented accommodation at Kajheri village of Chandigarh for the last few months. The police said an immigration company that has its office in Phase 3B2 near K J’s residence owed him Rs 50,000. He had gone to take that money but the person concerned was not there in the office. So Gaurav came and sat in the park where he had an argument with K J. According to the police, after getting slapped by K J, Gaurav left the park and went away. He later purchased a knife from a nearby market and returned around 10.30 pm. “He scaled the boundary wall of K J’s residence and rang the doorbell twice and took cover in the dark. The moment K J opened the door, Gaurav attacked him. Since K J too was a tall and well-built man, he resisted the attack. Gaurav was carrying a knife and stabbed K J multiple times. Gaurav kept on stabbing K J till he fell on the ground. To ensure K J dies, Gaurav slit his throat. While attacking K J, Gaurav realised that Gurcharan Kaur had also woken up because of the commotion. Gaurav killed her as well,” SSP Chahal said. After killing both, Gaurav stole away two mobile phones of K J and Gurcharan Kaur, K J’s three ATM cards, TV, set top box, a tele-flash, DVD player, kept them in K J’s car and drove away to his place at Kajheri village. The arrest The Mohali police recovered K J’s car that the accused was driving at the time when he was intercepted by a police control room vehicle (PCR-26) near Gurdwara Shaheedan on the road leading to Mohali airport on Thursday afternoon. SSP Chahal said the accused had changed the registration number of the vehicle. PCR vehicle’s incharge ASI Ajay Pathak said, “We were patrolling the road and going towards Mohali Airport. About 10.30-11 am, a green colour Ford Ikon car crossed us. I found the registration number of the vehicle suspicious. It was PB-64-A-0164. Mohali’s vehicle registration code is PB-65. Since we also had information about a missing Ford Ikon car bearing the same colour, we chased the car and intercepted it near Gurdwara Shaheedan.” “When ASI Pathak asked Gaurav (who was driving the car at that time) to produce his driving licence or vehicle’s registration documents, he could not. Gaurav could neither tell from where he purchased the car, nor could he produce his driving licence or any document establishing his ownership of the car. PCR team searched the car and found a car-service slip in the name of K J. They informed us and handed him over to us,” SSP Chahal told Chandigarh Newsline. The Crime Branch investigating the case interrogated Gaurav who confessed to the crime, took him to his accommodation at Kajheri village from where the stolen items were recovered. Murder weapon The police said that they had also recovered the knife which Gaurav used to kill K J. “The knife was also recovered from his house at Kajheri village,” one of the investigating police officers said. The police had recovered a wrapper of a kitchen knife lying in the park adjacent to K J’s house on September 23. Mud-stained footmarks too were found at the scene of crime based on which the police had thought that the assailant might have gained entry into the house from the park’s side.
