I often saw Rahul Matta wearing his Merchant Navy Uniform, riding a bicycle in the vicinity with a flag hosted on it,” said Jl Gupta, president of the Residents’ Welfare Association of the Ajanta Apartments which witnessed a horrific episode on Sunday where he stabbed his father to death and set afire his neighbour’s house where he took refuge.
Known to be a man of questionable character in the Madhu Vihar area, locals claimed that Rahul had gone to the United States with his younger brother 15 years back. Serving as a Chief Officer, he was deported from the country on charges of eve-teasing.
“When he came back to India, he started living with his parents. I often received complaints against Rahul for eve-teasing in the area. As far as I can recall, three to four complaints were received by the RWA. In July last year, a woman had reportedly filed a case of eve-teasing against him following which he was arrested and jailed for four days. His behaviour was always strange. Right from stopping girls midway, he tried to strike a conversation against their will,” said Gupta
“We heard that Rahul had got married to an already married woman who had two children from her previous marriage. This was one of the reasons why Ravinder Matta and his wife Vibha Matta refused to meet Rahul. Some 15 days ago, Rahul came to meet his parents with his wife. Enraged over his decision that he got married without their consent, they asked us to restrict his entry in our residential complex,” added Gupta
Once he was thrown out of the house, we heard Rahul started living in Pandav Nagar area with his wife. Apart from being a man of twisted mentality and jailed twice for eve-teasing, Rahul’s image on the social networking site, Facebook, too signaled towards his mindset.
A look at the profile and Facebook wall of Rahul Matta is enough to prove that the 39-year-old man, who was dismissed from the Merchant Navy in the United States two years ago, is not sane, said another resident of the area.
In his last post on Facebook, he had shared about a case of a serial killer. His cover photo too highlighted his obsession with his uniform, which was clearly indicative as to how he wore it regularly and rode a bicycle.