Policemen look for Khatri father, accomplice

A day after Delhi University student Arzoo Singh Chauhan’s body was found in northwest Delhi’s Model Town area, the police is trying to trace whereabouts of main accused Naveen Khatri’s father who is untraceable since the murder was discovered on Sunday.

The police is also probing the role of an unidentified person, suspected to have allegedly helped 23-year-old Khatri in committing the crime. A senior police officer said Khatri had disclosed the person’s name during interrogation, claiming that the individual had helped him in dumping the Chauhan’s body.

The police, he added, is also searching for Khatri’s father Rajkumar Khatri. “He (Khatri’s father) will be questioned once we track him down,” the senior police official added. A police source said that Khatri’s father was recently imprisoned in connection with a neighbour’s murder case. He had been released on parole last year. Khatri’s father had left his house by the time the murder was discovered by the police on Sunday.

Arzoo Singh Chauhan, 21, a student of Laxmibai College of the University of Delhi, was allegedly killed by Khatri, with whom she was involved in a relationship. Khatri hid her body in his house for five days and married another woman during the period. Chauhan’s body was found in a ventilation shaft at Khatri’s residence in Gurmandi locality, which comes under the jurisdiction of Model Town police station following which Khatri was arrested.

Khatri had allegedly strangled Chauhan, who lived in the same neighbourhood, on Tuesday and dumped her body in the shaft of his building. Khatri later got married to another woman on Thursday.

On Monday, the police continued questioning several members of the Khatri family and the guests who had come to attend his wedding on Thursday, to check if any of them had any knowledge of the crime. The police is also investigating if evidence in connection with the case had been destroyed, the official said. “We are analysing phone records of the deceased woman and the accused. We are also collecting additional evidence to finalise a proper sequence of events in connection with the case,” he said, adding that Chauhan’s autopsy report is still awaited. According to the police, Khatri met Chauhan outside Laxmibai College on Tuesday and both went around the city distributing invitation cards for Khatri’s marriage.

They together went to the residences of three persons to distribute cards.