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Murder of INLD leader’s brother: Accused held after encounter in Panipat
The accused was identified as Gurdarshan Singh, a resident of Ambala district, who was held after an exchange of fire with police near IOCL Refinery road on Sunday night.
Days after the brother of Panipat INLD brother was kidnapped and murdered, the district police on Monday said that they have arrested an accused after a brief encounter for his alleged involvement in the crime.
The accused was identified as Gurdarshan Singh, a resident of Ambala district, who was held after an exchange of fire with police near IOCL Refinery road on Sunday night.
A pistol was also seized from his possession and was undergoing treatment at the civil hospital, police said.
One of his associates, Jaljeet Singh, a local resident, to whom Gurdarshan came to meet, managed to flee from the site, taking advantage of the fog and darkness, they added.
This will be the sixth arrest in the kidnapping and murder of Jaideep Rathi, the brother of Panipat INLD district president Kuldeep Rathi, over a land dispute with another party.
Jaideep, an ophthalmology officer posted at the civil hospital, went to his office as routine on December 27, but did not return. A missing case was lodged the next day and hours later, the police found Jaideep’s car abandoned near a toll plaza in Dera Bassi.
The cops on Sunday also arrested a Yamunanagar-resident, Jaswant Singh for the crime. He was presented before a court and taken to eight days of police remand, a police spokesperson said.
During the probe, Jaswant revealed that he along with his associate Gurdarshan had shot Jaideep dead on December 27 in Punjab and dumped the body.
SP Bhupender Singh said that CCTV footage of the day he went missing and the next, revealed that Jaideep had gone to Zirakpur with two men, but was not seen later in other videos.
“As per the family’s complaint, we arrested four men on Friday. Jaswant was arrested on Sunday and during his remand, it will be probed, how they killed him and the involvement of other accused. An SIT is already constituted in the case and I have also assigned a DSP to probe into their old property dispute which led to the murder,” he added.
