A year after Shobhit Modi's murder, police report no headway

Delhi Police have made no headway in the year old Shobhit Modi murder case.

However, the local police officials, who first investigated the case earlier, are of the view that some ragpickers or drug addicts were behind his murder.

 The 20-year-old engineering student at Manav Rachna University in Faridabad was stabbed to death near his home in Vasant Kunj’s C-block around 10 pm on May 5.

He had four stab wounds – one on his chest, one in abdomen and two in the back. His father rushed him to hospital, where doctors pronounced him dead.

Delhi police profiled more than 7,500 peop­le in connection with the murder case, including 1,200 auto drivers and 1,400 employees of the DLF Mall, where he was last seen. 

However, police have not been able to crack the case yet and they are still clueless about the killer’s motive. They had also announced a reward of Rs 1 lakh for any information which could help in finding the murderer.

Police said in their report that Shobhit used to smoke hookah, cigarettes and take drugs.

The report also said the victim had a lot of male friends and some of them were present in the mall, and had also visited his house on the day of his murder. 

Most of his friends also shared his smoking habits and they used to take women out to markets, malls and parks.

Police also said they questioned Shobhit’s close friends as “they knew most of his secrets, and used to accompany him on visits to the houses of his female friends.”

The cops had also questioned his 17-year-old girlfriend but it did not yield any positive result.

Meanwhile, Suraj Modi, his father, has told a city court that the police did not seem serious about finding his son’s murderer and pleaded transferring the  case to Central Bureau of Investigation.

The court directed the local police to hand over the case to the Delhi Police’s crime branch.

“We have questioned many drug addicts in the area but we did not get the murderer,” said an official.

According to some officials, at initial stage of the investigation, the police were positive about nabbing the murderer but the sudden involvement of victim’s family members and their ‘rigid attitude’ hampered the probe.

“The family members used to point fingers at all of his friends from time to time and alleged police negligence in handling the case,” said the officer. Now, a team of crime branch is looking into the case.