'DNA' exclusive: Barc scientist’s murder case closed as gays clamp down

The police have closed the investigation into the sensational murder of a senior Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (Barc) scientist after struggling to get leads from members of the gay community. M Padmanabhan Iyer, 48, was found murdered at his Breach Candy residence at the high-security Barc residential compound on February 23, 2010, after an allegedly failed homosexual relationship.

After pursuing the case for nearly two years, the Gamdevi police recently filed an A-summary (case of murder is true, but cannot be detected) in court. Senior police officers told DNA that it was impossible to communicate with members of the gay community as they are scared of coming out of the closet. The police even approached transgender activist Laxmi Tripathi, but nobody came forward to help.

“We tried to speak to many gay groups, but nobody wanted to come out in the open and help. We sought Laxmi’s help to find out if a transgender was involved in the murder, but failed to establish anything,” said investigating officer Kiran Kale.

“It is very difficult to interact with the gay community as many of them do not want to come out in the open,” said Kale.

Iyer’s death was reported to the police after neighbours complained of a foul smell emanating from his house. The police found condoms and a nylon rope near Iyer’s body. The post-mortem report established that Iyer had had unnatural sex before his death.

The police officers attended gay parties in the hope of getting clues, but all in vain. “We visited a club near Colaba’s Radio Club where gay parties are organised every week. We also went to Karma near Girgaum Chowpatty many times. We tried to convince the people there to help us as a majority of the members know each other. But people refused to cooperate,” said Kale who is now with the VP Road police station. 

It was a sensitive issue and the police said they did their best not to hurt the sentiments of the gay community. “Very few detentions took place in the case as members of the gay community are sensitive about their sexual orientation. We detained some gigolos, but even that did not help either,” said a police officer from the Gamdevi police station.

“We have filed an A-summary in court as the case has not been detected yet. The incident took place when I was not posted here. The decision to close the case was taken by the previous officers,” said senior police inspector Pradeep Lonandkar from the Gamdevi police station.