In a fresh twist to the 2017 Aikom murder case, the victim’s minor son has told the court that he heard the sound of a gunshot from his father’s bedroom on the fateful night.
Seerat Kaur, wife of the victim, Aikom Singh Dhillon, 40, is the main accused in the case.
She is facing the charges of shooting Aikom dead on the intervening night of March 18 and 19, 2017. His body, stuffed in a suitcase, was found in their BMW car outside their rented house in Phase 3B1 the next day.
Her defence counsel, NPS Waraich, has maintained that Aikom died by suicide at his father’s house in Phase 3B1.
During the resumed hearing in the case on Wednesday, the couple’s 14-year-old son recorded his statement and also went through cross-examination in the court of district and sessions judge Rajinder Singh Rai. Seerat was also present in the court room.
In his statement in court, the minor boy stated that a day before the incident, he accompanied his parents, along with his sister, to Singh Shaheedan Gurdwara in Sohana where his father asked his mother to pledge not to meet her friend, but she refused to do so.
After returning home, he, his sister and their pet dog were in their bedroom, when he heard his parents quarrelling outside. Thereafter he heard shrieks of his father and immediately also heard the sound of a gunshot.
{{/usCountry}}After returning home, he, his sister and their pet dog were in their bedroom, when he heard his parents quarrelling outside. Thereafter he heard shrieks of his father and immediately also heard the sound of a gunshot.
{{/usCountry}}As his bedroom door was locked from the outside, he could not step out. But when his mother came to his room, he enquired about the sound and she asked him to go to sleep. The next morning he saw his mother’s maternal aunt and uncle at their house, and Seerat handed over something in a pouch and a mobile phone.
Counsel for the complainant, Darshan Singh, who is Aikom’s brother, said the boy narrated the incident in sequence. Before recording his statement, he took the permission of the court to meet his mother.
He identified her in court and submitted that she was present at their house in Phase 3B1 on the night of the crime. As per evidence, a day later, an auto-rickshaw driver had seen Seerat trying to load a suitcase into a BMW car, with blood oozing out of it. Aikom’s body was later recovered from it.