No answers in sight in Zee murder case, police starts questioning afresh

Rajah told The Indian Express this morning: “The cops asked me some irrelevant and disturbing questions. They were asking questions which have no bearing on the case. The senior cops examined the garage yet again. They also examined the garage two houses away where we keep our second car.” Rajah however, refused to say what questions he found irrelevant and disturbing.

The police are also reevaluating the statements of the watchman Vir Bahadur. The renewed questioning of Rajah and Bahadur apparently is an attempt to answer the question of where the deceased duo was between 12.30a m and 3 a m that day.

The police are examining the possibility of Rajiv and Monika having spent some time in his home after they left the Taj Palace party. If they had, Rajiv would have had to have a key to the front door. This line of investigation was earlier ruled out because Rajiv’s father had categorically stated that his son could not have returned home till at least 2 a m, till which he had waited on the balcony for his son.

Rajah said: “Rajiv kept odd timings but he didn’t need a spare key because one of us would be there to open the door. Even on days when he would leave home around 4 a m for Zee’s early morning news programme, I would wake up just to see him off. I would stand in the balcony and wave him goodbye and then go back to sleep.”

Bahadur, the watchman who doubled in as a car-cleaner in the locality, said he began his shift at 1 a m. He has repeatedly told the police that he did not see the bluish-grey Esteem — in which he found the dead duo a few hours later — enter the Rajahpremises. Had Rajiv and Monika driven straight to his home (INA Colony) immediately after leaving the hotel on Sardar Patel Marg, it would have probably taken them less than 20 minutes. That could be one reason why Bahadur did not see the car. Or Bahadur could have been on his rounds when the car arrived.

Bahadur then retraced the events that morning: “When I saw the two bodies lying in the car, I rushed up to the Rajahs’ first-floor home. When I rang the bell, their daughter opened the door. I told her that her brother was lying unconscious in the car along with a girl. She called out to her father and immediately slammed the door on me. Then I went off to the other pocket where I clean cars. I did not see Rajiv’s parents rush down to the garage while I was leaving. Half an hour later, the police called me to the spot.”

Joint Commissioner of Police (southern range) Amod Kanth on Thursday categorically denied that any team had been sent to Uttar Pradesh to question a west Delhi transporter who hadcalled up Monika on her cellphone on August 4.

“We are also looking into the mechanical aspects of the car in which the bodies were found. We will question everyone who was close to Monika and Rajiv once again,” he said.