The domestic help accused of murdering Jammu and Kashmir Director General (Prisons) Hemant K Lohia had made an unsuccessful attempt to commit suicide before fleeing from the spot after the killing, officials said yesterday.
The 23-year-old domestic help hailing from the Ramban area of Jammu region, Yasir Lohar, was thoroughly interrogated by a team of police along with psychologists to ascertain his mental condition. The case has since been handed over to the crime branch.
Lohia, a 1992-batch IPS officer, was found murdered with his throat slit at his friend’s house in Udaiwala on the outskirts of Jammu city on October 3 shortly after having dinner.
Examining the scene of crime with forensic experts, the officials said a torn belt was seen hanging from the ceiling and the explanation Lohar gave was that he had attempted suicide after killing Lohia with the help of broken glass bottle of ketchup.
They said Lohar was subjected to psychological examination as he seemed to have acted in a fit of rage after his expectation of a government job was not fulfilled.
Lohar emerged as the key suspect in the murder as he was found missing from the scene of the crime and later CCTV footage showed him running away from the house using the backdoor.
The accused also attempted to burn the body of the officer by throwing a burning pillow, attracting the attention of the family and his guards who rushed and broke open the door.
The accused attempted suicide after killing the officer but the belt which he had tied around his neck snapped under his weight. Afterwards, he escaped through the backdoor as others rushed in, officials said.
Marks of the belt were found on his neck as well.
Mapping activities of Lohar, a school dropout, for the last two years when he had fled from his ancestral village, officials said that he had been working with a senior IAS officer as a cook and joined at the house of Lohia’s friend about six months ago.
After leaving the residence of the senior IAS officer, he had worked in the garden at a senior IPS officer for a day before being kicked out from there.
The officials quoting the team of doctors claimed that though the accused was medically normal he often had bouts of anger and had violent behavioural tendencies and had been suffering from acute depression.
He was also questioned about his personal diary in which he had written “I hate my life” and “Dear death I am waiting for you”, besides scribbling an entire song of Bollywood movie Aashiqi 2 — “Bhula dena mujhe, hai alvida tujhe” (forget me as I bid you a final goodbye) — in which the lyrics talk about separation and final goodbye.
It seemed, according to the police, the school dropout was fed up with life.
In Hindi and broken English, he has also written in his diary one-line sentences like: “I want Restart My life”, “Zindagi to bas taklif deti hai, sukoon to maut hi deti hai (life only hurts, death brings peace), and “every day starts with expectation but ends with bad experience”.
He wrote he was “99 per cent sad” in his life but wore a “fake smile 100 per cent”.
“I am 10 per cent happy, having zero per cent love in life and 90 per cent tension in life. I hate my life which only gives pain and waiting for death to restart my life,” he wrote.
