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Phagwara double murder cracked: Lawyer, woman friend’s bodies recovered
The deceased Sanjeev Kumar (44) and his friend Anju Paul (42), were missing since April 19. Police had already arrested a history-sheeter Harvinder Singh alias Pinder, 35, the woman’s ex-husband for committing the crime.
The bodies of a local lawyer and his woman partner, who were kidnapped and murdered, were recovered from an agricultural field in Ludhiana’s Chahar village, 18 days after they went missing, the Kapurthala police said on Wednesday.
The deceased Sanjeev Kumar (44) and his friend Anju Paul (42), were missing since April 19. Police had already arrested a history-sheeter Harvinder Singh alias Pinder, 35, the woman’s ex-husband for committing the crime.
The police, in a joint operation with the Gujarat Police, had arrested Harvinder from a dhaba at Lakadia village, 52 km from Bhuj, on April 29.
Harvinder is serving life imprisonment for the murder of then Moga deputy superintendent of police (DSP) Balraj Singh Gill and his woman friend Monika Kapila in a farmhouse of an industrialist on Ludhiana’s Humbra Road in 2012 during a robbery attempt. He was released on parole two months ago and was to report back to prison on April 23. Six people were arrested. Harvinder was awarded life imprisonment in 2015. His accomplices got jail terms.
Senior superintendent of police Gaurav Toora said the special investigation teams were set up under SP (investigations) Prabhjot Singh Virk and Rupinder Kaur Bhatti, SP, Phagwara, to carry out a detailed probe into the matter.
“Though the teams had managed to arrest the main accused, he continued changing his statements and concocted multiple stories regarding disposing of both bodies. Accused first told police that he had thrown the dead bodies in the Rajasthan Feeder canal but later backtracked from his statement,” SSP Toora said.
He added after grilling him for multiple days, the accused finally confessed to strangulating both the accused to death and burying them in the open fields in Chahar village.
“On his identification, the police have dug out both the bodies and sent them for postmortem,” he said.
SSP said during the investigation, it came to light that the accused Pinder married Anju Paul in 2019 and both had a cordial relationship. Anju helped in getting Pinder paroles and other legal assistants.
“Their relationship turned sour after Anju developed a relationship with lawyer Sanjeev Kumar. Infuriated over this, the accused planned to eliminate both the victims and kidnapped them at gunpoint before killing them,” he said.
SP Phagwara Rupinder Kaur Bhatti said as many as six persons have been arrested so far. Three of his accomplices including accused Pinder’s brother Kuldeep Singh, Balraj Kaur and Rupinder Singh alias Pinda were arrested on April 27 for providing his financial and other logistics.
“On April 19, main accused Pinder along with his two accomplices Manjot Singh of Ludhiana and another accused, who is yet to be arrested, barged into Anju’s apartment and kidnapped them at gunpoint,” she said.
Police have already seized the lawyer’s Hyundai i20 car from Ludhiana.
In his complaint at the Phagwara sadar police station on April 23, Sanjeev’s father, Sudesh Lal, said his son had gone to meet his friend Anju at her flat in a high-rise building near Paragpur village on the Jalandhar-Ludhiana national highway. Anju was staying there with her 16-year-old daughter from an earlier marriage.
The case has been registered under Section 103 (murder), 138 (abduction), 140 (kidnapping a person with the intent to murder), 61(2) (criminal conspiracy), 336 (Endangering life) of the BNS and other sections of the Arms Act.
