Investigation into the case of the massacre involving 22-year old Harmit Singh who had allegedly murdered four of his family members has revealed that psycho- social disorder and drug/liquor addiction may have influenced the youth to go on a killing spree on the night of Diwali.
According to consultant psychiatrist and president of Uttarakhand chapter of Indian Psychiatric Society, Dr Nand Kishore, Singh appears to display sociopathy syndrome which along with factors like prevalent social stigma attached to a step-mother could have goaded him to go the brutal way of bumping of his family members, including his father.
“As far as this case is concerned media reports revealed that parents and other family members were aware of the fact that Harmit was addicted to liquor and substances. He remained insulated from his mother since an early age. This could have resulted in his feeling forlorn and insecure despite being in the family of his father. As per the probe, his father was generous to him. Despite this, he seemed to be nursing what is called in the psychological parlance sociopathy. There are reasons to believe that he had conceived the plan to do away with his family much earlier. Yet, it did not exactly look like a pre-meditated murder. He consumed liquor a great deal on the day of Diwali and this might have inflamed his long-suppressed emotions. He first searched sister’s son and later hacked him twice or thrice. However, he stopped short of doing him in while he did not spare even his step-sister who was expecting. Many factors might account for his queer discrimination. Maybe, the influence of the intoxicant came down and his conscience, his finer feelings for the boy he seemingly loved revived. For others, he seemed to have nothing but pathological hatred, at least during the time he was in an inebriated condition” Dr Nand Kishore said.
Patient afflicted with such syndrome should have been under the care of a professional psychiatrist, he added.
As per the police investigation, there is nothing murky as far as the motive and the identity of the murderer is concerned. Police have zeroed in on Harmit Singh as the sole perpetrator of the grueling massacre. However, the role of his mother, Anita Kaur, the divorced wife of Jai Singh now residing in Saharanpur, is yet to be probed into. Some relations of the deceased said on Friday that Anita might have engaged contract killers to wipe out the family and Harmit was just an accomplice.
In course of the investigation, it was revealed that Harmit was fond of bikes and mobile phones. He used to change them frequently with his father, an affluent trader based in Paltan Bazaar, going out of his way to satisfy his son’s craze for them. On the day of Diwali, however, things did not turn up as Harmit had expected. His step-sister got an expensive cell phone from his father by way of Diwali gift. This might have exacerbated his anguish and feeling of forlornness and that, on its turn, might have stifled his conscience and driven him in a frenzied fit to slice the necks of his relations with sharp-edged knife.
A shopkeeper of Paltan Bazaar and a close acquaintance of Jai Singh said his insulation from his mother at early age might have left him inherently insecure. He kept on nursing the wounds deep within himself. That was why he got addicted to liquor and substances in bids to seek relief from his intrinsic melancholy, he said. According to him, he had been a recluse since his childhood. He was not comfortable in the presence of his family members. Jai Singh had got his custody following long-drawn litigation involving his second wife, Anita Kaur, who has been living in Saharanpur (Uttar Pradesh). Due to the raging tension involving his parents, he could not have focused himself on studies. He had left study midway when he was a student of Class VII in a school in Dehradun. He seldom visited Paltan Bazaar, where their family business is based. “We knew he was queer. Jai Singh left no stone unturned to make his son turn over a new leaf. But his subjective queerness coupled with the effect of intoxicants on the night of Diwali when all of the family had just celebrated the festival of light and happiness made him to creep in and slash them all, except the boy he dearly loved, to death,” said another trader from Paltan Bazaar.