CHANDIGARH: Two days after a techie in Patiala took his own life fearing arrest by the Punjab Police on suspicion of terror links, his mother was found dead at her house on Saturday.
Rajatvir Singh Sodhi, a 24-year-old computer engineer, shot himself in the head on May 31, after police set off to raid his house in the Darshan Nagar locality of Patiala. Police said they were investigating leads indicating that the young man and his father Harpreet Singh Sodhi were involved in bomb-making in a vacant lot behind the Punjabi University in Patiala.
Sodhi Sr. is presently in police custody answering questions. This morning, his wife Kiranjit Kaur, said to have been depressed since her son's death, was found hanging by her dupatta from the ceiling of her house in Patiala.
Police officials said they had intended to question her too but had been unable to due to her grief.
Meanwhile, police are continuing their investigation itno Rajatveer's activities, especially the question whether he was a suicide bomber for a separatist terror group or a bomb-maker.
On May 31, police nabbed Harpreet Singh Sodi after his car, which was loaded with explosive materials, was stopped at a checkpoint. Rajathvir managed to evade arrest by speeding past the barricade, injuring a policeman in the process.
They learned of the techie's whereabouts from Harpreet, but upon reaching his house, the police found the young man dead, having purportedly shot himself with a .12-bore pistol. Ballistics experts recovered a jacket -- the kind typically used by suicide bombers -- that has custom-made pockets inside and outside.
Police also recovered a few bombs fitted in pipes that matched the size of the pockets in the jacket, five pistols and two dozen cartridges and two pressure cooker bombs. The cooker was the same brand that was used in an explosion that took place at Maur in January this year.
They also found 16 mobile phones, ten pen drives and a few CDs. A check of the techie's Facebook profile found two videos about Islamic extremism posted on the night of May 30, police claimed.
However, a senior police official, speaking to New Indian Express on Saturday, said the investigations so far carried out have not found anything to establish Rajatvir Singh Sodhi's alleged links with terrorist organizations. "But we are not ruling out the terror angle as the material seized points towards it. We have sent the seized mobile phones and laptop to the forensic laboratory for examination. Also twelve knives have been found by the police during a search of Rajatveer's house,’’ he added.
The source said the poolice have discovered that the young man was in unreciprocated love with a girl from Sangrur, Punjab. The woman complained to the police about his persistence and he was called to the police station and warned not to trouble her.
"He was upset by that and may have decided to kill her and went about gathering explosive material,’’ said the officer.