Student’s murder: Khatri father grilled

The Delhi police on Tuesday questioned Rajkumar Khatri, father of Naveen Khatri who allegedly murdered his girlfriend before hiding her body for five days at his home in northwest Delhi’s Model Town area. Rajkumar, who is out on parole after being imprisoned in a murder case, had disappeared since the body of 21-year-old Arzoo Singh Chauhan was discovered at his home.

In a parallel development, Chauhan’s father met Delhi police chief B.S. Bassi and sought transfer of the case to the crime branch, alleging that the local police was trying to protect the accused’s family.

“Khatri’s father, Rajkumar, had disappeared after the incident. He has returned now and we questioned him today. So far, he has claimed that he did not know about his son’s crime,” a senior police official said, adding that Rajkumar was jailed in connection with a murder and released on parole a few months ago. Also, a police team is looking for Khatri’s accomplice whose name was disclosed by the accused during interrogation.

The man, a native of Bihar, works as a labourer in northwest Delhi’s Rajpura Gurmandi area, where families of both the victim and the accused live, is suspected to have helped Khatri in hiding the woman’s body, the official said. Chauhan, a student of Laxmibai College of the University of Delhi, was strangled to death allegedly by Naveen Khatri (23), who hid her body for five days at his home and married another woman in that period.

The incident came to light on Sunday when Chauhan’s body was found in a ventilation shaft at Khatri’s residence in Gurmandi locality of Model Town, following which Khatri was arrested.

Meanwhile, the DU student’s father on Tuesday met Mr Bassi and handed him a letter accusing the local police of “playing dirty tricks” and requesting him to transfer the case to the crime branch. In the letter, he urged the police chief to either transfer the case to the crime branch or allow the CBI to handle the probe, a police source said.

He claimed the local police was trying to protect the members of the Khatri family.

In his letter, he alleged that he had met the SHO of Model Town police station to file a report about his missing daughter and had they acted on time, they could have saved her.