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Only witness in Sukha Kahlwan murder case shot dead in Kapurthala
Foreign-based gangster Doni Bal took responsibility for Gurpreet Singh, alias Gopi Nijjar’s murder through a social media post, claiming that he was working for rival gang members. HT could not independently verify the veracity of the post.
Unidentified assailants shot dead a close associate of slain gangster Sukha Kahlwan on at Kapurthala’s Dhilwan village on the Amritsar-Jalandhar national highway in the wee hours of Friday.
The deceased, Gurpreet Singh, alias Gopi Nijjar, 32, a resident of Jairampur village of Kapurthala district, was the only witness in Sukha’s murder case.
Foreign-based gangster Doni Bal took responsibility for Nijjar’s murder through a social media post, claiming that he was working for rival gang members. HT could not independently verify the veracity of the post.
Police said Nijjar was sitting alone in his car parked on the highway around 3.45 am when he was attacked. As this stretch is not under CCTV surveillance, police could not immediately ascertain the number of assailants or how they fled.
Preliminary investigation revealed that multiple shots were fired at the car from the front side as several bullets pierced through victim’s upper body.
Kapurthala senior superintendent of police (SSP ) Gaurav Toora said senior officials responded to the scene immediately after being alerted and the victim was taken to a nearby hospital. But doctors declared him brought dead.
“We have constituted multiple teams to arrest the assailants. We are scanning CCTV cameras installed near the crime spot on national highway to gather technical evidences in the case,” the SSP said.
A case under Sections 103 (murder) and 61 (criminal conspiracy) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and other sections of the Arms Act was registered at the Dhilwan police station.
Victim had a criminal history
SSP Toora said Nijjar was facing two arms and drugs cases, and another for a robbery bid.
His family members told police that Nijjar stepped out alone on Thursday night to have dinner at a food joint on the highway. He was living with his parents and a sister-in-law, while his two sisters and a brother are settled abroad.
In 2022, the Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar police had arrested seven persons, allegedly hired by a US-based NRI Amritpal Singh to eliminate Nijjar, whose family reported that he had been receiving death threats ever since he gave statements against the accused in the Sukha Kahlwan murder case.
On January 22, 2015, Sukhbir Singh Kahlon, alias Sukha Kahlwan, a notorious gangster, was gunned down by at least 14 assailants, who even filmed the act and danced around the body in front of policemen at Phagwara, when a team of six cops were taking him back to the Nabha jail in a jeep after a hearing in Jalandhar. In 2019, eight of the accused were acquitted by a Kapurthala court for want of evidence. The acquittal was challenged before the Punjab and Haryana high court, and the matter remains sub-judice.
