In the last conversation Mahesh Chand Joshi had with Badal Mandal, the man suspected of killing his 29-year-old brother, the latter gave four different accounts of his last meeting with the victim.
Bartender Vipin Joshi’s dismembered body was found in Mandal’s refrigerator in Mehrauli on Saturday. The victim, who was missing since October 10, and the suspect were colleagues.
“It was a 17-minute phone call with the suspect on Thursday, two days before my brother’s body was found in his house. The day Vipin went missing, he told me he was going to Mandal’s house. The accused was evasive in that last phone call before switching off his mobile phone. So much so that he had four different versions of when he had last heard from my brother,” said Mahesh, the victim’s younger brother.
Different stories
According to Mahesh, the accused first claimed that Vipin had told him on Monday that he was going to Haridwar and taking a train there.
“In the second version, he said he had dropped Vipin off at gali no. 2 in Saidulajab, where we live,” said Mahesh.
The suspect lives in gali no. 1 in the same area.
“At another point during the conversation, he told me that Vipin left his house after having dinner. In another version, Mandal said he dropped Vipin off at Saket metro station. I was too worried to confront him then. I realised the contradictions in his statement much later,” said Mahesh.
Despite Vipin’s close association with Mandal, Mahesh had met him just once.
Just like the investigators, he is puzzled about the motive behind the murder. He said his brother never shared information about any monetary transactions the duo might have had with each other. Mahesh works in a restaurant in Gurugram and lived with his brother.
“Mandal wasn’t a suspect initially. However, we were compelled to probe his role later. Once the body was found in his house, we started piecing together the sequence of events,” said Mahesh.
He added that Vipin and Mandal left the restaurant around 1.30 a.m. on October 9.
“Vipin came home briefly around 7.30 a.m. He asked if I was having a good time. He left home after that and I bumped into him in our lane a couple of hours later,” said Mahesh.
Last time he saw him
That was the last time Mahesh saw his brother. He was later told by a neighbour Vipin had returned to their room on October 9 with another man, and that both of them had a few drinks before leaving.
Mahesh suspects that man was Mandal.
“We found that Mandal left for his home in West Bengal, where he had sent his wife and children late last month, the next day. We suspect he was planning to murder Vipin,” said Mahesh.
Vipin’s body, he said, was stuffed in garbage bags. The body parts were found in different parts of the refrigerator.
