Murdered youth’s family cremate body after cops assure arrest of all accused

Ludhiana: A day after Sadar Jagraon police arrested four of the eight accused it booked for the murder of a villager at Roomi village on Saturday night, the family cremated the deceased after protests, and were seeking arrest of the fifth accused, Gurmeet Singh, in the case. Three other accused are yet to be identified, even as cops claim to get a lookout circular (LOC) issued Gurmeet, so that he does not flee the country.
On Sunday, Sadar Jagraon police had arrested four accused — identified as Gurjeet Singh, his father Yadwinder Singh, sarpanch Kuldeep Singh, and Janti (all from Roomi village) — for killing Manminder Singh (21) from the same village, and injuring his father Jagvinder Singh.

Police officials said Manminder’s family and relatives had refused to cremate his body, and had put it on Jagraon-Raikot road until late in the evening on Sunday in support of their demand for Gurmeet’s arrest. They added it was only after police officers assured them that Gurmeet would be arrested by 8am on Monday that they lifted the blockade around 9pm on Sunday.

Cops said as they could not arrest Gurmeet, and were unable to identify three other accused on Monday morning, the family members and kin of the deceased were again preparing for protests. They added that as they got information about the planned protest, SP Rupinder Bhardwaj and two DSPs from Jagraon reached the village and told the family that an LOC had been already issued against Gurmeet, who would be arrested soon, and three other accused identified. After an assurance by senior police officers, Manminder’s family decided to cremate his body.

SSP Ludhiana Rural police Varinder Singh Brar said the family cremated the deceased around 11am on Monday, while villagers were assured all the accused would be arrested soon. He said investigation into the case is on, and police were trying to fish out details about the unidentified accused.

In his police complaint, Manminder’s father Jagvinder Singh — who is between 40 and 45 years old — said that at 8.30pm on Saturday, he was discussing various issues with his son Manminder over dinner when Gurjeet came to his house and started abusing his son. He added that after Gurjeet ran towards his house, he came with other accused persons, and was carrying a gandasa (axe), while Yadwinder was carrying a kirpan, Gurmeet and Kuldeep were carrying pistols, and Janti and other unidentified accused were carrying rods.

Jagvinder further said the accused then broke open the door with the help of kirpan and gandasa, and entered inside his house before hitting his son with a weapon, who had later died at a hospital in Jagraon. He added that Yadwinder then hit him with a kirpan, after which he fell near his son.

Police booked the accused under sections 302 (murder), 307 (attempt to murder), 323 (punishment for voluntarily causing hurt), 427 (mischief causing damage to the amount of fifty rupees), 452 (house trespass after preparation for hurt, assault, or wrongful restraint), 148 (rioting, armed with deadly weapon), 149 (every member of unlawful assembly guilty of offence committed in prosecution of common object) of the IPC, and sections 25, 27, 54, and 59 of the Arms Act.