Journalist KJ Singh saw man doing recce of his house: Police
Scribe spotted ‘suspicious’ man near his residence, say cops
MOHALI: Senior journalist KJ Singh, 63, who along with his mother, Gurcharan Kaur, 92, was found murdered at his residence in Mohali on Saturday had seen a suspicious man possibly conducting recce of his house on Friday.
Sources in the police said KJ Singh had informed his elder brother BP Singh on phone on Friday that he had spotted a person with a frail structure moving around his house between 4pm and 6pm. At one point, the man reportedly tried to open the gate of his house as well.
Singh used to stay with his mother in a one-kanal corner house, adjacent to a park. Police have also found some footprints along the railing in the park.
KJ Singh had last spoken to BP Singh, who stays in Sector 41, Chandigarh, around 7pm, said their nephew Preet Inder.
The double murder first came to light on Saturday afternoon when KJ Singh’s sister Yashpal Kaur reached his house along with her son. Punjab Police have set up a special investigation team (SIT) under inspector general (crime) Shashi Prabha Dwivedi to investigate the case.
Meanwhile, initial police investigations suggest the attackers left the crime scene in the victim’s car.
But police have ruled out robbery as the reason behind the double murder, even as the motive remains unclear, said sources.
Besides KJ Singh’s green Ford Ikon car (PB 65 0164) that used to be parked outside his house, his mother’s and his mobile phones and an LCD television are also missing.
The senior journalist, who was freelancing for a Canadian magazine, had a studio with expensive recording equipment in the house. But nothing from the studio, including the laptop, is missing. Singh’s gold chain was also intact.
Police personnel are scanning footage from two CCTVs installed a couple of houses away.
Police said KJ Singh was stabbed in the stomach and neck. One of the slippers that he was wearing was found near the main door where he was first stabbed in the stomach.
His body was found lying on his bed while his mother was found dead with her legs hanging out of the bed in the adjacent room. She was apparently strangulated.