By IANS,
Dharamsala : The family and friends of British charity worker Michael Blakey, who was murdered in this northern Indian hill station in November 2006, are not satisfied with pace at which the police investigation is going on in India.
They have shot off a letter to the Foreign Office asking them to put pressure on Indian authorities to help the British government in tracing the killer.
However, local police say they are hampered by the absence of a probable suspect, who has since emigrated to Scotland.
The body of Blakey, who worked with an Indian charity running community-based projects in the Kangra valley, was found beneath boulders in a shallow stream running through an old British cemetery here in November 2006. He had been bludgeoned to death.
Police suspected the involvement of Pawan Bhardwaj, the Indian husband of Blakey’s colleague Rachel Owen. He was arrested by the police a few days after Blakey’s murder and questioned for several days but was later released without charge. He later migrated to Scotland along with his wife.
“We are re-investigating the murder of Michael Blakey… so far more than 20 people have been interrogated,” Deputy Superintendent of Police Dinesh Sharma, who is the new investigation officer in the case, told IANS Friday.
“Our investigations are primarily on the basis of the report of a coroner’s court in Britain. But there is no substantial evidence in the report,” he said.
The Lancashire coroner’s court has sent an inquest report to the Indian police that includes statements of Blakey’s colleagues and friends, including Owen and Bhardwaj, and Blakey’s post-mortem report.
“Both post-mortem reports (one conducted here and second in British) are same and both pointed out that the victim had suffered extensive injuries on the head and died of asphyxia,” Sharma said.
He said the police still suspected the involvement of Bhardwaj in the crime and had two theories – either Bhardwaj was jealous of his wife’s friendship with Blakey or Blakey might have uncovered some financial scam in the charity, perhaps involving Bhardwaj.
However, he said it was not possible for them to interrogate Bhardwaj.
“We do not have enough evidence against him so far to initiate his deportation proceedings. It is now on the part of the British police to summon him again and try to find out his involvement, if any, in the crime,” he said, adding that they even did not know Bhardwaj’s address and phone numbers in Scotland.
According to the police, Blakey visited this hill town in 2004. At that time he met Owen, who was planning to run a charity here with a Buddhist monk Jamyan. Blakey showed interest in the charity and helped her form the Tong-Len charity.
Between 2004 and 2006, both visited Britain many times to generate funds for the charity.
Bhardwaj met Owen in a small tea shop belonging to his uncle in October 2005 and they fell in love. They married in a traditional Hindu ceremony July 2006.
On Nov 26, 2006, Blakey suddenly went missing from the monastery where he was staying. His body was found in the graveyard two days after his disappearance. It was sent to his family in Britain after post mortem.