On the morning of July 5, American citizen Hemant Chawla was found dead at his ‘friend’s’ residence in the posh New Friends Colony.
Five months later, on Sunday, the Crime Branch arrested two persons for their alleged involvement in the murder. The main accused, the ‘friend’, is yet to be arrested as he is admitted in the hospital, the police said.
“Tasim and Pritam Saini alias Sonu have been arrested. Nitin Sabherwal will also be arrested but he is currently admitted in a hospital,” confirmed Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime Branch) Alok Kumar.
Mr. Chawla, who had come to India in 2016 to take care of his 72-year-old mother Neena after living in the US for nearly 25 years, was found dead at Nitin Sabherwal’s house. He knew Nitin since their school days.
On the hot Wednesday morning around 6 a.m., Nitin called Mr. Chawla’s driver Balwant Singh informing him that his boss was dead.
The driver immediately called up the victim’s sister Shivani and mother, who were in London at the time.
“Balwant saw Hemant’s body lying on the floor and he was shirtless. We immediately asked him to inform our cousins and friends and bring them to the house. I also spoke to Nitin and asked him what happened,” Ms. Shivani said.
Nitin allegedly told Ms. Shivani and the investigators that Mr. Chawla had come to his house for dinner and drinks on the night of July 4 and got heavily drunk.
Nitin went on to say that he then went out for a drive with his business partner Tasim and returned home around 4.15 a.m. and saw Mr. Chawla lying dead.
“What made the whole situation extremely suspicious was why did they not call the doctor and why did he inform Balwant about Hemant’s death after nearly two hours,” said Ms. Shivani.
On the family’s insistence, Nitin called the ambulance but they allegedly refused as the person was already dead and told them to call the police instead.
When the police reached the spot, the officer on duty suspected it wasn’t a natural death and preserved the body for a post mortem to be conducted after approval by the victim’s family.
Crime Branch takes over
Ms. Shivani and her husband Mandeep and mother Neena landed in Delhi on July 5 and approved the post mortem the next day.
A week later, the post mortem report was submitted which stated that the cause of death was asphyxiation. “However, an FIR in the case was not registered till I went and met the Commissioner of Police who directed it to be registered immediately. He also transferred the case from the district police to the Crime Branch,” said Ms. Shivani.
On July 19, a case was registered under Section 302 (Punishment for murder) and 34 (Common intention) of the IPC. The case was transferred to the Crime Branch in August because the crime scene was heavily tampered with, as alleged by the victim’s family.
Botched probe
“Nitin said that Hemant had consumed drugs. He said Hemant was drinking wine. When asked where the wine bottle was, he said that it was taken away by the kabadiwala (scrap dealer) at 6 a.m., which is impossible in this area,” said the sister.
Ms. Shivani also accused the officers who were initially conducting the probe of shoddy investigation.
“Hemant’s wallet, watch, phone and all his belongings were given to the friends on the day of the incident instead of being taken for investigation. Hemant’s phone was with me for two weeks after his murder. No forensics team was called to the spot,” she said, adding that the first time the police visited them was when they wrote the complaint for FIR.
A senior Crime Branch officer privy to the case said” “There’s a reason why the investigation was transferred to the Crime Branch”.
In a shocking turn of events, the Crime Branch told the family that on the day of the incident there was another person present with Tasim and Nitin and he was found to be Pritam Saini, who wasn’t mentioned by Nitin at all.
Also, the same month, the viscera report came out and stated that there were no drugs in Mr. Chawla’s system as claimed by Nitin.
Finally, on October 12, the report submitted by AIIMS medical board opined that the cause of Mr. Chawla’s death was ‘asphyxia as a result of manual strangulation’. After a month-and-a-half, the arrests were made based on the evidence collected by the Crime Branch.
“The motive behind the murder is being investigated. They are being questioned,” said Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime Branch) Ram Gopal Naik.
Monetary dispute
The family suspects a monetary dispute behind the murder. “Hemant was helping Nitin with a property deal worth crores. We suspect he had lent Nitin a huge amount and was demanding it back,” said Ms. Shivani.
