Techie who murdered parents is mentally healthy, police say

Bengaluru: Was he schizophrenic and did his illness cause him to stab his parents to death? This question haunted everyone when police arrested 33-year-old software engineer Rohan Chandra for stabbing his parents – Naveen Chandra Bhatt, a retired Navy captain, and Shyamala Bhatt – to death at their villa in Vigyan Nagar near HAL township in February.A neighbour, Dr Madhavi Nair, was among the witnesses to the attack and shifted the couple to Manipal Hospital on Old Airport Road, where she worked. However, both victims were declared dead.While taking statements from neighbors and witnesses, the police learned that Shyamala had told them that Rohan was facing anxiety issues and was schizophrenic. Based on this, the police transferred him to NIMHANS.However, after a week of observation and treatment, NIMHANS doctors declared Rohan a fit person, and there were no symptoms of stress or anxiety or schizophrenia, said Deputy Commissioner of Police (Whitefield) Saidulu Adawatha.“The doctors gave us the clear go-ahead, saying we can interrogate Rohan and later produce him in court. With that certificate, we continued our investigation and interrogated Rohan in detail,” he said.According to the findings of the investigators, Rohan was mainly troubled over two issues. His parents refused to give him financial help of Rs 10 lakh, which he wanted to invest in a startup he wanted to launch. After completing his master’s degree in Artificial Intelligence in the US, Rohan wanted to start a company that could provide AI tools. But his parents refused to give him the money, saying that he had to do a job.Secondly, his father was not allowing Rohan to port his mobile number from Jio to Airtel, police said.“Rohan had used the Jio number for a long time and had shared it with others. He wanted to retain the number and switch to Airtel. But his father rejected the request. On that fateful day of February 11, a heated argument took place between Rohan and his parents and ended in brutal murder,” the police chargesheet states.The nearly 500-page charge sheet contains statements of around 40 witnesses and also includes the report of the forensic science laboratory.Forensic reports confirm that the blood stains found on Rohan belonged to his parents. Police said, this establishes the fact beyond any doubt that Rohan was the murderer of the couple.