2016 money exchanger murder: Police theory falls flat, court acquits accused industrialist

A hand-tool industrialist, Varinder Singh alias Rajan Kochar, arrested in a high-profile murder case of money exchanger and businessman Anil Kumar Billa, was acquitted by the court of district and sessions judge SK Garg on Thursday, following lack of evidence against him.

Billa was shot dead on the night of June 3, 2016, when he was sitting in his Toyota Fortuner (PB-08 BW 8006) car outside the Allahabad Bank near the Company Bagh Chowk here.

Following the incident, the Jalandhar commissionerate police, led by commissioner of police (CP) Arpit Shukla, had arrested Kochar claiming enough circumstantial evidence against him, all of which fell flat in the court on Thursday.

Defence counsel Sanjeev Bansal said that police had made up the story just to claim they had solved the murder case, but all their theories have fallen flat in the court.

“The police have failed on every count and even after two years of harassment to my client, this murder still remained a mystery for the police,” he said.

Police claimed that Kochar had a licensed .32 bore revolver with himself and seven bullets issued on his name were reported missing.

The police also claimed that the CCTV footages of Kochar’s house of that day were not available and claimed to have sufficient telephonic records between him and the deceased.

The police had also claimed that Toyota Fortuner (PB-08 BW 8006) SUV in which Billa was shot dead near the Company Bagh Chowk on June 3 was also registered in the name of a factory co-owned by Kochar. Police said Kochar had been paying the vehicle’s loan instalments and couldn’t cite a reason why his vehicle was with Billa that day.

More embarrassment to the police came after they produced a statement in teh court, claiming it to be of the victim’s wife, Mamta, and holding Kochar as responsible for killing Billa, on August 12. However, she denied to have given any statement against accused industrialist Kochar.