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Former Jalandhar Youth Congress president shot dead
The victim, who was convicted in a 2008 kidnapping case and sentenced to life imprisonment, had come out of jail after completing sentence
A former Jalandhar (rural) Youth Congress president, Sukhmeet Singh ‘Deputy’ (43), was shot dead in broad daylight by three unidentified assailants in the Gopal Nagar area of the city on Thursday.
Sukhmeet was convicted in the 2008 Mickey kidnapping case and was sentenced to life imprisonment. Mickey, son of film distributor and developer Subhash Nanda, was released by the kidnappers for a ransom of ₹1 crore of which ₹65 lakh was recovered after their arrest. Sukhmeet, who was held guilty in the kidnapping case in 2011, had come out of jail after completing his sentence.
Deputy commissioner of police (investigation) Gurmeet Singh said Sukhmeet, also elected councillor in 2007, was going from Workshop Chowk to Gopal Nagar on a bike when a car following him hit his two-wheeler from behind. Sukhmeet fell from the bike and the assailants fired 10-11 rounds at him. The victim sustained 8-9 bullet injuries and was rushed to a private hospital where he was declared brought dead.”
“We are trying to procure CCTV footage from the area besides recording statements of his family members. We have got the registration number of the car used by assailants and investigation is underway,” the DCP added.
The police said the motive behind the murder was not clear yet.
Sukhmeet had enmity with some inmates in jails where he served life term. “We are probing all the angles,” Gurmeet Singh said.
Sukhmeet’s cousin Rajbir Singh said he (Sukhmeet) received a call in the afternoon and went to attend a birthday party saying he will return soon. “We received a call after 5-10 minutes that Sukhmeet had a fight with someone. But when we reached the spot we found him dead. We have shared details with the police,” he added.
The body was sent for the postmortem.
The police said they had initiated the process of registering a case under Section 302 (punishment for murder) of the Indian Penal Code.
Jalandhar police commissioner Gurpreet Singh Bhullar said they have got some major clues and the case will be cracked soon.
