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Ludhiana: Contract killers among five held for murder bid on lawyer
The accused had promised the contract killers to pay ₹20 lakhs, but as the lawyer- Sukhmeet Singh- survived, the accused had paid ₹3 lakhs to them
Two weeks after car-borne assailants attempted a murder bid on a city-based lawyer, the police arrested as many as five persons, including three contract killers, in connection with the case.
Wife and two brother-in-laws of the victim, who are accused of orchestrating the attack, are yet to be arrested, police said.
The accused had promised the contract killers to pay ₹20 lakhs, but as the lawyer- Sukhmeet Singh- survived, the accused had paid ₹3 lakhs to them, they said.
The police have recovered three country-made pistols, four mobile phones and a car used in the crime from their possession.
The arrested accused have been identified as Kamal Verma, 55, of Benjamin Road, his son Mohit Verma, 21, Tittu Anand, 30, of Uttarakhand, Harman Singh, 22, of Malerkotla and Gurpreet Singh alias Gopi, 29, of Hoshiarpur.
Gagandeep Kaur of Guru Gyan Vihar of Jawaddi, wife of the victim Sukhmeet Singh Bhatia of Guru Gyan Vihar, and his two brother-in-laws- Mandeep Singh Gulati and Sukhwinder Singh Gulati are yet to be arrested.
Deputy commissioner of police (DCP, Rural) Jaskiranjit Singh Teja said that car-borne assailants had opened fire targeting the lawyer on February 14 in Dugri. The lawyer suffered bullet injuries, but he drove himself to the hospital. He alleged that the lawyer stated that he had a dispute with his wife following which his wife and brother-in-law had tried to murder him.
Following his complaint, the Dugri police had lodged an FIR under sections 307, 506, 34, 120B of the IPC, sections 25 and 27 of Arms Act.
The DCP added that different teams were formed who thoroughly investigated the case and arrested Sukhwinder’s father-in-law Kamal Verma and then arrested brother-in-law Mohit Verma and Sukhwinder’s aide Tittu Anand from Bangalore.
The DCP said that Tittu and Mohit were among the key accused who hatched the conspiracy.
“Tittu who used to work along with Sukhwinder, revealed that Sukhwinder along with his brother-in-law Mohit had met him in December. Sukhwinder stated that he is ready to pay ₹20 lakh to the contract killers to kill Sukhmeet Singh,” the DCP said.
“Tittu added that he fixed the meeting with Harman. Sukhwinder arranged five pistols each with 5 live cartridges and Harman involved two more accomplices in the crime,” he added.
Following the conspiracy, Sukhwinder along with his family had gone to Dubai on February 2 to avoid suspicion. Meanwhile, on February 14, the accused attacked him.
