New Delhi, July 24 (Inditop.com) A close aide of Himanshu Sabharwal, son of Ujjain professor H.S. Sabharwal who died after being beaten up by students in his college in August 2006, was found stabbed to death in Delhi University, police said Friday.
The body of Parminder Singh, who worked as accountant with Himanshu’s advertising firm in Gurgaon, was found in the Maurice Nagar area of the campus by a passer-by around 11.30 p.m. Thursday. Singh’s body bore six to seven stab wounds.
The police have ruled out robbery as the motive behind the murder, having found Singh’s motorcycle near his body. However, his mobile phone was yet to be recovered.
Deputy Commissioner of Police (north Delhi) Sagar Preet Hooda told IANS that they received a call around 11.30 p.m. about a body being found near Khalsa College in the north campus. He said they had registered a case and were investigating all angles, including personal enmity.
According to police sources, Singh, Himanshu and their friend Pooja – a freelance journalist with a weekly newspaper published from Delhi – had met in Park Inn restaurant in Connaught Place around 5.30 p.m. Singh had come on his motorcycle, while Himanshu brought Pooja in his car.
There they had decided to plaster posters seeking ‘Justice for Professor Sabharwal’ in Delhi University between 8-11 p.m. to gather people for a candlelight vigil at India Gate Sunday. Himanshu and Pooja left for the campus in his car and Singh on his motorcycle, which he parked in the law faculty.
The three were joined there by Saif, a student leader of the Ramjas College. All the four knew each other as they were associated with an NGO, Uday Foundation, which was pursuing the case.
According to a police officer investigating the matter, Himanshu said they had been putting up posters at various places till around 11 p.m.
“After that, he left with Pooja in his car. Saif left for his hostel and Singh went inside the law faculty to collect his bike. Himanshu said it was the last they saw of him (Singh),” the officer said.
Himanshu said he dropped Pooja at her Hauz Khas home around 11.50 p.m. and had then called up his friend Garima, who he had come to know through Facebook, on his way to his home in Gurgaon, the officer added.
Meanwhile, the investigating officers questioned Himanshu, Pooja, Saif and Garima separately and recorded their statements.
Himanshu said he came to know about the incident after police called him early Friday.
“Around 1.30 a.m. I received a call from Singh’s wife that he had not reached home. I told her that he would reach soon. Around 2.30 a.m. I received a call from Delhi Police that he had been murdered,” he told reporters.
“I haven’t seen his body but police told me that his body has five to seven stab wounds. Police told me that Singh was stabbed somewhere else and his body was shifted to the spot later,” he said.
Singh stayed with his family in Sagarpur area of southwest Delhi and was working for Himanshu for the past four years.
His elder brother Kailash said: “The police called us to inform that Parminder has met an accident and was admitted to the Trauma Centre. As we were preparing to leave the house, the police again called up to say he has been killed and was being shifted to the mortuary.”
Singh’s father Raj Kumar said: “My son has no personal enmity with anyone. We do not know who has killed him and for what purpose.”
There were also reports that Himanshu had named members of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) – the students wing of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) – as being behind the murder.
Denying the allegation, ABVP vice-president Vikas Dahiya said: “If he is alleging that the ABVP is behind the incident, it is ridiculous.” The police too had discounted any political vendetta behind the murder, suspecting it to be a case of personal enmity.
A Maharashtra court July 13 had acquitted, due to lack of evidence, six ABVP student activists of charges of beating Prof Sabharwal to death in Ujjain’s Madhav College.
