Property dealer falls to death, cops sniff murder

A property dealer fell to his death from the fifth floor of a housing society in east Delhi’s Madhu Vihar where his business associate lived, police said.

While police confirmed that Govind Balam, 38, a resident of nearby Rama Krishna Apartments in Patparganj area, died on Thursday night around 8 pm due to the fall, his family alleged foul play with no possibility of accident or suicide. Police have registered a case of murder.

Deputy Commissioner of Police Rishipal said investigators were told by the family members of Balam that he had apparently written a five-page letter – which wasn’t a suicide note – the previous day. “We have not yet got the letter or seen it,” he said.

Police are questioning Rohit Uppal, Balam’s business associate, and scanning CCTV footage of the housing society to build the chain of events that led to the death.
 Some people known to Balam said that Uppal owed some money to him.There were broken flower pots outside the door of Uppal's flat, indicating the possibility of a scuffle.

Broken flower pots

“I was sitting in the room with my son when the maid came to me and told me about noises of flower pots breaking. We saw all the flower pots broken and when we looked down from the balcony we saw that people had gathered around a body on the ground, “said O P Uppal, owner of the house.

He said the victim was a client of Rohit Uppal, his grandson, who was in share marketing business. “We did not know the person and neither had he come home ever. Also Rohit was at his office when the incident happened,“ he said.

But the victim's family alleged that Balam went to Madhu Vihar apartments very often.

On Thursday, he had an intuition that there would be a quarrel and had already called police and a property dealer Rakesh before his death, the family claimed.

A day after the death, the guards, gardeners and many residents of the Milan Vihar society appeared to be unaware of the incident despite the presence of blood stains on the ground.

“I do not know anything about the body. I did not see it as we had left by the time the incident happened. We were told about this by the guards on night duty,” said a gardener.

"I was informed about the body by a person who had come to deliver water at my place. We do not know anything beyond this,” said Dayavati Arora, a neighbour of Uppal's.

Neighbours of Balam in Rama Krishna Apartments, where he lived with his family, said he was going through some financial crisis and had borrowed money from several people in his society which he was slowly repaying.

“All was not well on the financial front. He also gave a cheque of Rs 35,000 to one person living in the society on Thursday morning. He returned Rs 7 lakh out of 10 lakh to another person living in the society,” a neighbour told Deccan Herald.

The property dealer is survived by his parents, wife and an 11-year-old daughter.Grieving relatives could be seen outside Balam’s house on Friday afternoon before his body was taken for cremation.