‘Robbery not the main motive behind murders’

Forty-eight hours after the murder of a 23-year-old journalism graduate and her parents at their Sector 17, Rohini residence, the outer Delhi police have not been able to make any breakthrough in the sensational case. Karn Pratap Singh reports

Forty-eight hours after the murder of a 23-year-old journalism graduate and her parents at their Sector 17, Rohini residence, the outer Delhi police have not been able to make any breakthrough in the sensational case.

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Even though the police are groping in dark about the motive behind the murders, senior officers maintained that robbery was not the main reason behind the murders.

Apart from probing the case from a property angle and personal enmity, investigators suspect the involvement of someone close to the journalism graduate.

Police are still waiting for the post mortem examination reports of the victims to ascertain the exact cause of their death.

Karishma Chauhan alias Rozy and her mother Rekha Chauhan, 50, were found strangled to death in their first-floor bedroom's floor while her father Yogendra Pratap Singh Chauhan, 52, was found in a pool of blood on his bed on the ground floor of their two-storey residence.

Chauhan, who ran a chemical business, was hit on the back of his head, near the left ear, with a blunt object and he died of excessive bleeding, said a police officer.

An injury mark on Rozy's forehead suggested that she was also hit with a blunt object before being strangulated with her dupatta (long scarf), the other end of which was tied to the iron grille of the window. Rekha was strangulated with a cable of an electric iron.

An investigating officer said on the condition of anonymity that they had prepared a list of people who had access to the victims' house and were in the process of questioning them.

"Questioning them about Rozy's personal life has helped us get some clues in the case. We are in the process of verifying those facts before reaching to a conclusion.

In the meantime, we are analysing call records of the two mobile phones which were found missing from the house. One the phone belonged to Rozy and we are examining her call records to ascertain if she was in touch with a person who was unknown to other family members," said the officer.
Since the entry into the house was friendly, investigators, who believe that the killers were known to the victim, are also looking into the property angle in the case.

Chauhan had received Rs. 35 lakh as compensation for his only son's death who was killed in a road accident in 2010. Besides, he had returned from his ancestral village in UP's Etah with some money.

"We are probing money angle in the case also and so far no body related to the family has been given a clean chit," added the officer.