Thaindian News

New Delhi, May 16 (IANS) The Delhi Police have zeroed in on the friends of a 20-year-old engineering student who was stabbed to death near his south Delhi home early this month and claim that the murder was pre-planned.

“A few friends of Shobhit Modi are under the scanner. We have made a list of friends and are keeping a close watch on them,” Deputy Commissioner of Police Chhaya Sharma said Monday.

Modi, a second year Information Technology student at Manav Rachna University in Faridabad and an alumnus of Delhi Public School, R.K. Puram, was stabbed to death near Vasant Kunj’s C-block around 10 p.m. May 5.

Sharma, however, said that his few close friends were very co-operative in the investigation.

“We are verifying all the calls made from the telephone facility in the area. The murder was meticulously planned,” said the officer.

The Delhi Police Crime Branch unit assisting in the probe is still looking for clues.

“The investigation is on and we are looking into the matter,” said Deputy Commissioner of Police Ashok Chand.

The police said that Modi had left his house at 4.30 p.m. May 5 in an Alto car with a driver.

“They reached the DLF Promenade mall where he met his five friends, including a girl. Around 6.30 p.m., he went home to collect his wallet and returned to the mall. He sent his driver away, saying he would call if he needed him,” said the officer.

Shobit was at the mall with his friends till 9 p.m. The closed-circuit television footage from the mall showed him with the girl around 9 p.m., after which Shobit called his mother to inform her that he was coming home in 20 minutes, the officer said.

Shobit was found stumbling towards his colony gate by a guard around 9.50 p.m. Seeing him slouched over the car barrier, the guard thought that he was drunk.

“It was raining and there was no power there. Shobhit’s iPhone rang and the guard picked it,” the officer said.

The guard informed the caller, a girl, about Shobit lying at the gate, who then informed his parents.

He had four stab wounds, one on the chest, one in the abdomen and two in the back. His father rushed him to a hospital, where doctors pronounced him dead.