Photo fetish led to Pushkin killing HT Correspondent New Delhi, August 28
In the end, Pushkin Chandra's obsession to photograph young friends in the nude cost him and long-time friend, Kuldeep (who just happened to be at Pushkin's place the night of August 13) their lives. The murderers, Rajesh Kumar and Moti � who is still absonding � were enraged enough to wound both men around 30 times and stab them several times more, the police said on Saturday. Police chief K.K. Paul said three persons, including Rajesh Kumar (picked up in Chattarpur, Madhya Pradesh), were arrested on Saturday on charges of murder, harbouring criminals and disposing stolen property. Pushkin's laptop, Polaroid camera and other stolen goods have been recovered from them. ================================== Delhi gay murder arrest OUR CORRESPONDENT New Delhi, Aug. 28: Police have arrested one of the alleged murderers of an USAID officer whose killing a fortnight ago took the veils off the gay community in the national capital. The 38-year-old official, Pushkin Chandra, son of a retired IAS official and a Doon School alumni, was found murdered with his partner Kuldip at his residence in the posh locality of Anand Lok. It is believed his insistence on photographing two people as they engaged in homosexual acts might have led to the murder; however, several items were robbed from his house as well. Police are thus not ruling out robbery as a motive after arresting three people today, including Rajesh, 24, who allegedly killed Pushkin. Rajesh and Moti, both school van drivers, are believed to have committed the double murder. Moti, also 24 and a Nepalese, is learnt to have fled back to Nepal. Rajesh, who lives in central Delhi's Old Rajinder Nagar, was arrested today along with Jai Kumar and his son Praveen, who received the many goods stolen from the USAID officer's house after he was murdered. Jai and Praveen live in the servants quarters at Pusa Road, also in central Delhi. Delhi police commissioner K.K. Paul reconstructed the chain of events leading to the murders. Paul said Pushkin must have picked up Rajesh and Moti from Connaught Place after work on August 14. Both drivers were known to Pushkin for they had met four to five times earlier. Chandra, Kuldip and the drivers then attended a farewell party hosted by UNDP officer Uffe Gartner, a Dane, at nearby Sanwal Nagar around 11.30 pm. Gartner was leaving for Paris by a 3 am flight the next day to take up a new posting. Well-known among the gay community, Gartner's house was a haven for those who wanted to stay in the closet and socialise without inhibitions. The foursome returned to Pushkin's house and began to engage in homosexual activity. The trouble started when Pushkin fished out a camera and began taking pictures of Rajesh and Moti. He did not stop even when they objected, prompting them to grab knives from the kitchen and stab him repeatedly. Kuldip was killed because he was a witness. The bodies were found in a state of undress and a huge stash of pornographic CDs and photographs of men in compromising positions with other men was found. The police are also looking at blackmail as a possible motive after learning from Pushkin's friends that he frequently picked up young men from lower middle class backgrounds as partners. After killing Pushkin and Kuldip, Rajesh and Moti stole electronic items like a DVD, VCD, camera and credit card and drove away in his Opel Corsa. They abandoned the car at Bela Road in Daryaganj at a parking lot where shop owners park their cars. ==================================================== How police cracked Pushkin case HT Correspondent New Delhi, August 29 Beat constables Charat Lal and Gorakh Nath, attached to the Rajender Nagar police station, provided the clinching piece of information that gave shape to the heap of material thrown up during the investigation into the Anand Lok double murder case. Beat constables in Central Delhi were put on alert after Pushkin Chandra's telephone records revealed that hundreds of calls had been made to him from phone booths in the area. Constables were asked to find out the whereabouts of young, unemployed youth of the area. Recovery of Pushkin's golden brown Opel Corsa from Daryaganj hinted that the accused could be staying in a central Delhi locality. Fortunately for the investigators, constables Charat Lal and Gorakh Nath were alert enough to find out and inform them that two persons, Rajesh Kumar and Moti, were missing since August 16 from their homes. Some calculations later, a police team was despatched to Madhya Pradesh and Rajesh Kumar was picked up from his hometown in Chattarpur district. Commissioner Dr K.K. Paul said the other suspected murderer, Moti, is of Nepalese origin and efforts were on to arrest him. "The other two accused Jai Kishore and Praveen Kumar were arrested for helping the accused to escape and disposing stolen goods,'' Paul said. Investigating the case wasn't easy, Paul said, because Pushkin used pseudonyms for his friends and it was difficult to track them down. Several of his friends who were at the party at Sanwal Nagar, hosted by Danish national Uffe Gartner, were questioned. Investigations revealed Pushkin's habit, which the police called "peculiar", of picking up boys and young men from places like Connaught Place, Chanakya Puri, Karol Bagh and Paharganj. Police say this habit exposed him to all kinds of eventualities. Some help came from bank and credit card records of transactions made on August 14, a day after the murder. Pictures from a particular ATM booth in Central Delhi also assisted the police in zeroing in on the identity of the accused, the commissioner said. ******************* The final moments August 13 ** Pushkin meets Rajesh Kumar and Moti near Odeon theatre. They return to his residence. Kuldeep joins them later ** The four leave for Uffe Gartner's party ** Late into the night, they return to Pushkin's house. Rajesh and Moti quarrel with Pushkin. The duo kill Pushkin and then target Kuldeep August 14 Bodies of Pushkin and Kuldeep discovered ================================================ Scent of a crime: Cops sniff out killers TIMES NEWS NETWORK[ SUNDAY, AUGUST 29, 2004 12:06:14 AM ] NEW DELHI: Two weeks after 38-year-old USAID employee Pushkin Chandra and his friend Kuldip were found murdered in Anand Lok, the Delhi Police on Saturday claimed to have cracked the case. The police said Pushkin was murdered because he clicked nude photographs of the alleged killers and later attempted to blackmail them. The accused, Rajesh, a taxi-driver, was arrested from Chattarpur in Madhya Pradesh. On his statement, the police identified the second assailant, Moti, who is still at large. Moti, an unemployed youth, is a Nepali. His father is a watchman. Both Moti and Rajesh are residents of a slum cluster in Rajinder Nagar. They reportedly fled from Delhi on August 17, three days after the murder. The police also arrested two more persons from Delhi and recovered the stolen goods from their house inside the campus of Pusa Institute. Jai Kumar and his son Praveen were also allegedly aware of the murder and Rajesh's whereabouts. Police commissioner K K Paul said: "The DVD, polaroid camera, laptop, mobile phone, Pushkin's clothes, a leather bag and hand gloves were found from their home after Rajesh disclosed their address." Reconstructing the sequence of events, Paul claimed Rajesh and Moti had visited Pushkin's house at least five times before the murder. "The two apparently agreed to go with Pushkin since he gifted them valuable products like electronic goods and expensive clothes," Paul said. On August 14, Pushkin went to Odeon Cinema in Connaught Place to pick up Rajesh and Moti. The three came to Pushkin's house in Anand Lok where they had dinner. ======================================================== Argument over photos may have led to murder TIMES NEWS NETWORK[ SUNDAY, AUGUST 29, 2004 12:01:33 AM ] NEW DELHI: On the day of the murder, Pushkin was joined by Rajesh and Moti for dinner. Kuldip, another friend, apparently joined them later. At 11.50 pm, all left for Uffe's party in Sanwal Nagar. They were there till 12.30 am. Although the police are unable to specify the exact circumstances which led to the murder, they claimed Rajesh's preliminary inquiry reveals the alleged killers had an argument with him. A police officer said: "It appears Rajesh and Moti were going through the album containing nude photographs. They probably found theirs too. This led to an altercation." After Pushkin finished having intercourse with Kuldip, he wanted to do the same with one of the accused who resisted, the police added. They also objected when Pushkin switched on his digital camera. "The difference of opinion led to a scuffle leading to Pushkin's murder," said the officr. The police ruled out Kuldip's involvement. "He just happened to be a witness," said an officer. ==================================================== Vital clues from beat policing TIMES NEWS NETWORK[ SUNDAY, AUGUST 29, 2004 12:00:22 AM ] NEW DELHI: Vigilant beat patrolling and an alert constable can do wonders. This holds true for the Pushkin murder case which was cracked 14 days after it was reported. The detection was possible only because two beat constables of Rajinder Nagar maintained registers of the unemployed youth of the area. Constables Gorakh Nath and Chattar Lal matched the sketches and the photograph clicked at one of the ATM centres of ICICI bank with the youth living in Rajinder Nagar area. "As soon as I saw the picture, I could place the man in the photograph. The suspicion was confirmed after I saw the sketch carefully," said Gorakh Nath. His colleague, Chattar Lal had accompanied the south district team to Chattarpur in MP where one of the alleged killers, Rajesh, was tracked. Immediately after the murder, the south district police formed 24 teams. On tracing Pushkin's mobile phone records, the investigation fanned to five areas of Delhi. "About 180 calls were made from areas including Paharganj, Nabi Karim, Rajinder Nagar, Karol Bagh and Connaught Place," said a police officer. Teams were sent to Noida, Ghaziabad and Gurgaon. Policemen were also sent to Chandigarh and Nainital after the police learnt that Pushkin had visited the places in the recent past. The police got a shot in the arm after they recovered Pushkin's stolen car from Darya Ganj area on August 21. The car had been abandoned and one of its rear tyres was flat. Four days later, the police heard from the ICICI bank whose credit card Pushkin owned. Bank officials gave details of the two transactions which took place a day after the murder. These transactions happened before the police told the bank to block Pushkin's card. In one of the transactions, the ATM machine's in-built camera captured the profile of the man who withdrew money. "Although the picture wasn't clear since the man was wearing a cap, his profile, the kind of clothes he wore gave us an idea about his personality," a senior police officer said. As the number of phone calls made to Pushkin, during the last three months, were either from Rajinder Nagar or Karol Bagh area and even the credit card transactions took place from these two places, the police probe narrowed down to these specific localities. On Thursday night, beat constables of Karol Bagh, Rajinder Nagar and Karol Bagh area were briefed by the south district senior police officer. "They were asked to be on a look-out for the person who wore a similar clothes as that of the man in the picture. When the two Rajinder Nagar beat constables made inquiries, they learnt Rajesh and Moti were missing from their homes," police said. And when the sketches were shown to the constables, they confirmed that the two were Rajesh and Moti. ========================================= I am happy his killers have been held: Father TIMES NEWS NETWORK[ SATURDAY, AUGUST 28, 2004 11:59:18 PM ] NEW DELHI: They are happy that their son's murderers have been caught. But that was all that they chose to reveal. On Saturday, the Chandra's 24 Anand Lok residence bore a deceptively serene air, betraying the turbulence that has surrounded it since Pushkin's death on August 14. Choosing to keep away from the media's glare, his parents had posted a guard outside the house. When contacted, Pushkin's father A K Chandra, a retired IAS officer of the MP cadre, said : "Naturally I am happy that my son's murderers have been caught. But I shall speak no more about it. I can talk about my son as he was. A lovely boy, friendly and generous. He was a wonderful son and I shared a beautiful relationship with him." He also lambasted the media on the kind of reportage it had carried out in his son's case. "I, as a grieving father, am shattered by the way the media has slandered my son. If there has been a murder then it should be reported like one," he said. He added: "His murder has been used to talk about his lifestyle, he has been talked about as a playboy." ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> $9.95 domain names from Yahoo!. Register anything. http://us.click.yahoo.com/J8kdrA/y20IAA/yQLSAA/WfTolB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> Group Site: http://www.gaybombay.info ========================== NEW CLASSIFIEDS SECTION SEEKING FRIENDS? VISIT www.gaybombay.info click on classified section and type your message in the post section once the link opens What's hot? What's not? Where are the LGBT parties being held and when? Click here!! http://calendar.yahoo.com/YYY,04497/srt,0/gaybombaygroup/?v=42&POS= Yahoo! 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