Babulal Kashyap, a 60-year-old doctor, was examining a woman patient in his clinic in Trilokpuri, West Delhi, when a man ran in and stabbed him to death.

It was October 31, a day before the 25th anniversary of the anti-Sikh riots. Kashyap had once been accused of being involved in the carnage and was acquitted by a local court in 2005.

Ruling out robbery, the police said it might be personal enmity that lay behind the murder. The incident was reported from Block 32 of Trilokpuri around 6.30 pm. Kashyap, who had been practising in the same area since 1978, was in his ground floor clinic when he was murdered.

“The woman patient he was examining told us that a man barged in, and stabbed him on chest and forehead and escaped,” said a police officer.

Kashyap’s son and another local resident tried to chase the attacker, but he succeeded in making off. Kashyap was taken to the Lal Bahadur Shastri Hospital, where doctors declared him dead.

Officers said they would check whether the murder had anything to do with his alleged involvement in the anti-Sikh riots. “The timing and the way the murder was done seem strange at first,” said an officer. “It looks like there was no motive. Then we came to know he had been acquitted in an anti-Sikh riot case and given the day of his murder, it opens up a different possibility. But we are probing all angles,” he added.

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