Within hours of killing his mother, accused Gurwinder Singh, a drug addict, also murdered his stepbrother and dumped his body in a canal, police said on Monday.
On Sunday, Gurwinder, 23, was arrested for killing his mother Paramjit Kaur, 45, with a sharp-edged weapon and cutting her body into two before setting it on fire at his home in Kangthala village of Patran in Patiala district late on Saturday evening, police said.
To hide the first crime, the accused also murdered his stepbrother and threw his body in a canal, Both the murders took place on June 25, police said after custodial interrogation of the accused.
Police said Paramjit was married twice and had a son each from both marriages. She was married to NRI Janpal Singh and the accused was born out of this wedlock.
But her husband abandoned the family and later Paramjit’s kin got her remarried to Raghuvir Singh in 2008. A son was born from the new marriage. Paramjit’s second husband died in 2011 and her maternal family was looking after the lady and her two sons.
SSP Varun Sharma said police have also arrested two accomplices of the accused identified as Rajinder Singh and Ranjit Singh.
“Though the case came to the fore on Saturday, the accused had murdered his stepbrother, Jaswinder Singh, 20, and mother on June 25. He first murdered his mother at around 10 am and when his brother came home at around 1 pm, he also murdered him. The trio then took the brother’s body in a car and threw it in the canal near Khanauri. Later, the body was fished out and cremated as unidentified by the police,” Sharma said.
{{/usCountry}}“Though the case came to the fore on Saturday, the accused had murdered his stepbrother, Jaswinder Singh, 20, and mother on June 25. He first murdered his mother at around 10 am and when his brother came home at around 1 pm, he also murdered him. The trio then took the brother’s body in a car and threw it in the canal near Khanauri. Later, the body was fished out and cremated as unidentified by the police,” Sharma said.
{{/usCountry}}The incident came to light when the accused tried to burn his mother’s body inside the house using kerosene. Alerted by the foul smell, the neighbours informed the maternal family and later police were called.
“Gurwinder cut the body of the deceased into pieces with a chisel and burnt it in the corner of the house. Dried blood has been recovered from the house, the SSP said.
“The three accused have admitted during interrogation that they are addicted to drugs. Gurwinder used to ask his mother for money for drugs. On being denied cash he killed his mother,” the SSP added.
SSP said that the accused have been presented in court and taken on police remand for further investigation. A challan will be produced at the earliest to ensure speedy justice in this case, he added.