Paras Bhasin case: Wife gives police 'suicide note'

Investigators on Wednesday said they were treating the death of a young tattoo artist, whose severed body was recovered from railway tracks, as murder even as the girl, whom he had secretely married, provided them what she claimed was a suicide note from him.

The body of Paras Bhasin, 23, was recovered from Pandav

Nagar railway tracks on Saturday with police initially claiming it to be a case of suicide. Paras' family, however, alleged that he was murdered.

Police claimed BBA student Paras' girlfriend, whom he secretly married in an Arya Samaj temple, gave them a suicide note jointly written by them in the last week of August after her family objected to their relationship.

The note said they both wanted to commit suicide on August 27, a day after she told her family about her marriage but they changed their plans later.

"The case is still open. There is no point in rushing into a conclusion. We are treating it as a murder case. We have examined the girl. She has given us a suicide note. We will corroborate and verify it.

"We will conduct an independent and thorough probe into the incident," Sanjay Kumar Jain, deputy commissioner of police (crime), said.

He also said the last call made to Paras was by a friend and they could not find any suspicious calls in his phone records. "We are awaiting the post mortem and forensic reports," he said.

A senior police official said the families of Paras and the girl will be questioned.

The girl along with her father, who Paras' family alleged was behind his death, was questioned on Tuesday. The suicide note has the signatures of both Paras and the girl and police are now verifying it.

"We will verify the handwriting," the official said.

Sources said they checked the CCTV footage of Delhi Metro and Paras was spotted at Laxmi Nagar metro station in the evening.

Paras was seen boarding the Metro at Subhash Nagar metro station at 3:14 pm on Saturday and reached Lakshmi Nagar metro station at 4.11 pm. Sources said Paras was seen alone.

Investigators also traced the person who made several calls to his family asking them to come to Pandav Nagar area to get the body of Paras but police said he did not appear to be involved in his death.

The caller was a passer-by who found Paras' ID card lying near his body and then made a call.

Paras' mother dismissed the claim of the girl's family that her son committed suicide.

"My son was in good mood. He had to meet a lawyer in the evening. He was excited about his marriage. He was mad about the girl.... Why would he commit suicide?" she said.

She alleged police were not investigating the case properly. "My son is gone...I want justice," she said.