The Patiala police on Wednesday arrested the childhood friend of the MBBS student who was stabbed to death at his rented accommodation here two days ago. Senior officials confirmed the arrest of Mohit Verma, who allegedly stabbed the victim 28 times and ensured that “he was dead”.
“Mohit confessed to have usurped over Rs 12 lakh from the victim and was demanding more. He had not returned the amount and got furious when the victim demanded it back,” the police said.
On Monday, the Patiala police had booked Verma for the murder of Kamaldeep Mittal, a resident of Bareta village in Mansa.
“Initial probe and post-mortem report suggest that the accused stabbed the victim multiple times near his neck and we suspect that he used two kind of weapons to execute the crime”, said an official.
“We managed to arrest him on Wednesday evening and will present him in the court on Thursday to seek his police remand. His initial questioning suggests that he is not remorseful about his act,” said a policeman.
A college dropout, the accused was a regular visitor to the victim’s rented accommodation in the New Lal Bagh area.
“As of now, it looks like the handiwork of one accused, but we are not ruling out involvement of more than one person,” said police.
Patiala SSP Varun Sharma that a team led by SPs Palwinder Cheema and Gurbans Bains along with CIA in-charge Pardeep Bajwa cracked the case within two days.
“Just before the murder, the two watched a cricket match at Polo Ground and then watched a movie at the victim’s room. Later, the accused used a knife to brutally attack Kamaldeep multiple times till the knife handle got separated. He even used the handle to stab his own friend,” said the SSP.
“The two had invested lakhs in the share market and the crime was due to the money. Even after the murder that took place in the morning around 7 am, the accused withdrew money from the back account of the victim through an ATM machine,” he added.
Meanwhile, family members of the victim said that their son had no enmity and demanded death penalty for the murderer.
