Woman, son critically injured in axe attack by addict husband

Ludhiana: A 40-year-old man, who was addicted to drugs, allegedly attacked his wife and 17-year-old son with an axe, injuring them critically, at Kotala village of Samrala area on Thursday morning. The man took away his younger son while fleeing. The woman and her elder son were taken to a government hospital in Samrala and were referred to the PGI in Chandigarh due to their critical condition.
Police said Harjeet Singh, a carpenter, took his wife Jaswinder Kaur (37) and Lovepreet Singh (17) to the fields near their house early in the morning and attacked them with an axe repeatedly.

Locals said the incident was so heart-wrenching that no villager could gather courage to go near the woman and son suffering in pain. Later, Jaswinder’s parents came to know about the incident after which her two brothers Bhupinder Singh and Avtar Singh of Kala Noor village near Morinda reached the village and arranged an ambulance.
Bhupinder said his brother-in-law Harjit Singh is addicted to drugs and used to fight with his sister. He said they got a call around 6.30 am that the accused had badly injured his sister and nephew. After reaching the village, they then arranged an ambulance and got them shifted to a government hospital in Samrala. Avtar said the accused was an addict and wouldn’t sleep the whole night and wouldn’t let others sleep too. He said his sister was operated recently. He had dropped her at her home at Kotala 15 days back as Harjeet had been fighting with his children, Avtar claimed.
“Had we known that he would do such a thing, we wouldn’t have dropped her at his place. He has taken another son Manjot Singh (14) along and we now fear for his life. We want police to nab him as soon as possible and rescue his younger son,” Avtar said.
Dr Manpreet Kaur, medical officer at Samrala government hospital, said in the assault, both woman and her son were critically injured. They had several injuries especially on the face, skull and hand. She said doctors referred them to PGI in Chandigarh as the condition of the patients was very serious.
Samrala police have booked Harjeet under Sections 307 (attempt to murder) and 324 (Voluntarily causing hurt by dangerous weapons or means) of the Indian Penal Code. Police have also released the picture of the accused and his 14-year-old son Manjot Singh saying the accused has run away from home by attacking his son and wife and has taken his younger son with him on a bicycle.
Samrala DSP Waryam Singh said police have launched a manhunt to track down Harjeet.
Police officials said it is still not known what led Harjeet to attack his wife and son so brutally. It will be clear once he is arrested, cops added.