NEWS: A Death in India

By MARK McLAUGHLIN
Edinburgh Evening News
5 January 2010

DETECTIVES have reopened the investigation into the death of a man who was killed in India while working for an Edinburgh-based charity.

Michael Blakey, 23, was found bludgeoned to death in a churchyard in Dharamsala in November 2006.

The investigation has now been reopened and officers are hoping to talk to Pawan Bhardwaj, who moved to Edinburgh with his wife Rachel Owen shortly after the killing when she became pregnant with twins. He had previously been questioned and released by Indian police.

The investigation instead shifted to a thief who robbed Mr Blakey, of Burnley, Lancashire, of his mobile phone and credit cards, but police failed to uncover any new leads. Dharamsala Deputy Superintendent of Police, Dinesh Sharma, said: "We have approached Scotland Yard to deport Indian Pawan Bhardwaj to India so that he could be re-examined."

Mr Blakey had been working for Edinburgh charity Tong-Len when he was slain in November 2006.

Two post-mortem reports – one conducted in India and the second in Britain – found he died from extensive head injuries and strangulation.

Speaking after Mr Bhardwaj's release in January 2007, Rachel's mother, Anna, 66, who set up the Tong-Len UK charity which Rachel works for, said: "None of us ever thought that he had anything to do with Michael's death and even the police had very little to go on. It was such a relief when he was finally released and cleared."

The family began raising money to create a permanent home in Michael's memory for destitute families, to be called the Michael Blakey Centre.

One theory was that the devout Christian was murdered by a thief who robbed him of his mobile phone and credit cards.

The phone was later found at a shop in Ludhiana, about 100 miles south of Dharamsala.

The shopkeeper was questioned and released and police started looking for the man who sold him the phone.

The investigation into Mr Blakey's killing was reopened last July after UK police contacted colleagues in India and asked for help in tracing the killer.

An inquest report from the coroner's court in Lancashire was sent to the Indian police.

It included statement's from Michael's colleagues and friends, including Rachel and Mr Bhardwaj, plus the post-mortem report.