NRI’s death rocks DU area

Keanan Mehra, 22, was found by his houseowners with a knife stuck in the neck in the lobby of his fourth-floor flat, the police said. He had recently applied for post-graduation in Philosophy in Delhi University.

Mehra’s family is based in Norwalk, Connecticut, USA.

The police have registered a murder case and are trying to find out anyone who met or made contact with Mehra since Saturday, when his landlord Harjeet Singh says he was last seen. A police source, though, said it could be a case of suicide since there are no evidences — fingerprints, footmarks, signs of resistance — to suggest the presence of outsiders in the flat (see box).

Harjeet Singh said Mehra had moved into the house — 2315, Hudson Lane — on April 25. “We had last seen him around Saturday noon; he did not come downstairs thereafter,” Singh said. “He did not let the domestic help clean his room that day, and she found the flat bolted from inside again this (Monday) morning.”

This was around 8 am. Concerned, Singh said he knocked on the door hard and called out aloud. “Then we informed his aunt, Chetna Kapoor, who stays in Vaishali (Ghaziabad), and later pried the door open with the help of neighbours.”

He said Kapoor was Mehra’s local guardian.

The 22-year-old’s father, Achal Mehra, runs a magazine called ‘Little India’ in Norwalk, USA; his mother works with an NGO there, the police said. Mehra arrived a couple of months ago and initially stayed with his aunt. His parents came here on April 8 and arranged for the two-room rented place in Hudson Lane, Harjeet Singh said.

Singh said his parents left for the US on April 12, after which the youth went to Haldwani (Uttarakhand) “with his aunt to attend a wedding”.

DCP (Northwest) Manish Agrawal said, “We are waiting for reports and trying to find who he met frequently during this period (from Saturday).”

Circumstances say suicide: police
A police source said circumstances and conduct of the deceased suggests he might have committed suicide, though no police official was willing to go on record till the postmortem report reaches a conclusion. The source said the main door to the flat was bolted from inside and he was found with stab injury, made with a kitchen knife. If it was a murder, the source asked, how would the assailant leave with the door bolted from inside?

“Besides, there was no sing of resistance, or any footmark or fingerprints in the house to suggest presence of another person,” the source said. “There was also no ransacking, and the landlord downstairs did not see anyone enter or leave.”

The source said Mehra’s cellphone call details are blank, meaning he had apparently not made or received any call since Saturday.

Students scared
Hudson Lane’s proximity to Delhi University’s North Campus makes it a haven for students: there are several paying guest accommodations for women, and scores of DU students — both male and female — live on rent in this area. With demand has come the expected spurt in property rates, but Monday’s ‘murder’ has left both houseowners and students shaken. “Nothing of this sort (murder) has ever happened here. It is extremely alarming,” said Joseph Debbarma, student and Hudson Lane resident.