Waiters kill hotel guard in Punjab’s Tarn Taran, take away SUV, rifle

Two waiters of a hotel in Tarn Taran allegedly murdered a security guard and fled with a rifle and an SUV (sport utility vehicle) on the intervening night of Saturday and Sunday, police said.

The deceased, Harjinder Singh,52, a former armyman, was a resident of Tarn Taran. The accused have been identified as Rajneesh,20, and Gulshan ,22, from Sambha village in Bihar’s Muzaffarpur district.

Harjinder’s family members said he was working with the Hotel Seven Star for the last 15 years.

Deputy superintendent of police (DSP) Satnam Singh said, “The accused hit on Harjinder’s head with a baseball bat around 2:30 am, killing him on the spot. After that, they took along his rifle and the hotel owner’s Isuzu SUV.”

Hotel owner Harjinder Singh Dhillon said,“Rajneesh was working with us for the last two months while Gulshan was hired a fortnight ago. At around 12:30am, other hotel staff went to sleep after taking tea but Harjinder stood at the hotel’s gate. The two have also stolen some cash.”

SHO Chander Bhushan said soon after getting information about the incident, a police team led by the DSP reached the spot and started the investigation.

“We examined the footage of the closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras installed on the hotel premises and found the accused taking away the hotel owner’s SUV with baseball bats in their hands. Our preliminary investigation found that two waiters murdered the security guard.”

A case under Sections 302 (punishment for murder), 380 (theft in dwelling house etc), 120 (punishment of criminal conspiracy) and 34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) has been registered against the accused.

“We are working on tracing the accused who will soon be arrested,” the SHO added.