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New Delhi: The Delhi Police are on the lookout for seven people who visited Karnataka lawmaker K. Raghupathi Bhatt's wife before she was found dead on Sunday.
The police have registered a case of suicide. However, they are not ruling out the possibility of murder and are awaiting the post-mortem report to crack the case.
"Although prima facie it appears a case of suicide, but the possibility of murder cannot be ruled out," said an assistant commissioner of Delhi Police.
Bhatt's wife Padmapriya in her early 30s was found hanging from the ceiling fan of her recently rented southwest Delhi apartment by police on Sunday evening.
"We are verifying credentials of people who had visited her on the fateful day," said the police officer.
The absence of a suicide note has given rise to speculation that Padmapriya may have been killed and her body hung from the ceiling fan to mislead the police. Unconfirmed reports say that she was poisoned before her body was hung using a nylon rope.
The visitors register kept at the main entrance gate of Shama Apartment of Sector 10 of Dwarka subcity has emerged as crucial for the investigation.
According to Delhi Police sources, four entries were made in the visitors register for A-20 apartment that Padmapriya had taken on rent from one Lakhwinder Singh, who owns the apartment.
She had paid Rs26,800 as advance towards the rental for two months and had bought a secondhand Maruti Suzuki Wagon R car as well.
In fact the first visitor, who entered his name as Satish, had visited her in a Wagon R car around 12:40pm on Sunday. He stayed there for barely two minutes. Apparently he had come to deliver the car bought through a used car dealer.
The second visitor named Upender identified himself as an employee of Airtel telephone service provider. Interestingly, he entered the timing of his arrival 6:30pm, although the police broke open doors of the apartment around 6:15pm.
Apparently he made a wrong entry either willingly or inadvertently. The third visitor identified himself as Atul. He came along with three other unidentified persons and merely mentioned Atul plus 3 in the register and wrote his address as Sector 3, Dwarka.
The next entry in the register again is in the name of Atul, although his handwriting was different from the previous visitor's with the same name. He entered the timing of his entry as 6:15pm.
"The two Atuls appear suspicious. It is possible that the first Atul and his co-visitors killed her and the second Atul came to hang her body. We are not ruling out anything at the moment," said the police officer.
Padmapriya had disappeared mysteriously from Udupi district of Karnataka on June 10. The police are trying to find out how she landed in Delhi and where she stayed initially before renting out the apartment.
The doors of her Dwarka apartment were broken open after a team of Karnataka police and her husband reached the apartment after a tip off that she was residing there.
The Delhi Police were contacted by them when they did not get any response after ringing the door bell on Sunday evening.
Padmapriya went missing on way to her parent's house in Multi, a town 30km from Udupi. The Karnataka Police registered a case of kidnapping after her mother informed them about her failure to arrive at the house.
The police found the car abandoned below the Kunjargiri Hill with some broken bangles, a mobile phone, Rs10,000 (Dh870) in cash and some blood stains near the driver's seat - all indicating that she had been kidnapped.
Padmapriya and her lawmaker husband K. Raghupathi Bhatt were going through a crisis in their married life. Bhatt is one of the newly elected lawmakers of the Karnataka assembly and represents the state's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party.
Interestingly, Delhi Police had been informed by neighbours that she was staying with a man in the apartment. Delhi Police feel she may have contrived her disappearance and reached Delhi on her own to start a new life.
She was either killed by her companion out of fear or she decided to end her life after coming to know that Bhatt and a team of Karnataka Police had reached the city to trace her.
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