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Punjab crime: Wholesaler kills man, fakes own death to claim ₹4 crore insurance, arrested
Police on Wednesday arrested Gurpreet Singh, a resident of village Husain Pura near Sirhind, along with five others, including his wife Khushdeep Kaur, and an insurance agent
It was a devious plan that almost worked for a Fatehgarh Sahib wholesaler. The 41-year-old trader killed a man to fake his own death for claiming ₹ 4 crore insurance money but could not escape the long arm of the law.
Police on Wednesday arrested Gurpreet Singh, a resident of village Husain Pura near Sirhind, along with five others, including his wife Khushdeep Kaur, and an insurance agent. As per police, the trader staged a road accident near Rajpura on June 19 to kill Sukhjit Singh, a marginal farmer, who had a drinking habit, to fake his own death and claim the insurance sum. With the money, the wholesaler hoped to cover losses suffered in the business. The wholesaler had bought the policy 6 months back. Apart from the husband-wife duo, the other four accused arrested are truck driver Jaspal Singh, a resident of village Marhu, insurance agent Rajesh Kumar, a resident of village Fatehgarh Sahib and Jaspal Singh, a resident of village Marru in Patiala.
A carefully crafted plan: cops
Police said the main conspirator Gurpreet Singh along with others killed Sukhjit in a staged road accident near Rajpura on June 19.
Police said Sukhjit’s face was crushed under a truck, twice, so that no one could identify him. The wholesaler’s wife and kin later claimed the body and cremated it to claim the insurance amount. Police said that Gurpreet was working as a dealer of a popular brand of snacks and sweets and had suffered losses in the business.
The accused first befriended the victim by taking advantage of his drinking habit. During one of the drinking sessions, the accused mixed something in the victim’s drink rendering him unconscious. He then crushed the victim’s face under a truck twice, police added.
How it all unravelled
SSP Fatehgarh Sahib Ravjot Grewal said that the victim Sukhjit Singh, a resident of Sanipur village, was reported missing on June 19. His family member informed that he had gone to a liquor store but never returned.
“While acting on the complaint, police found his slippers, mobile and motorcycle near the Sirhind canal. Prima facie it seemed a case of suicide, however, his family member ruled out all possibility. Later, it has come to the fore that the victim had been drinking with Gurpreet Singh for the last 25 days. We also found that Gurpreet had died in a road accident on the same day when the victim had gone missing. A case pertaining to his death in an accident was registered at Sadar Rajpura police station,” the SSP said.
The SSP said it raised suspicion and the police started investigations.
Police said the accused’s wife and other family members identified Sukhjit’s body as that of Gurpreet. But when the picture of the body was shown to Sukhjit’s wife Jivandeep Kaur she identified it as her husband.
“Lack of hair on the victim’s body further strengthened our suspicion and Gurpreet’s wife was questioned. Upon sustained questioning she unravelled the entire plot,” a police official privy to investigations said.
“Gurpreet made the victim unconscious by giving him drinks mixed with 30mg of morphine tablets on June 19. Later, they took him near Rajpura and crushed his face twice under a truck, so that he couldn’t be identified,” the SSP said.
The SSP said that the accused had identified two other people but one, a resident of Mohali, had a tattoo on his arm, while the other from Patiala district, didn’t match Gurpreet’s physical appearance.
