Wife’s kin among five held for killing man in Haryana’s Panipat

The deceased identified as Banti, from Babail village in Panipat, had married to girl from the same village three years ago

Five days after a 27-year-old man was murdered in Panipat, the police have arrested five persons, including three relatives of his wife.

The police have also recovered four country-made pistols, 20 live cartridges, two empty cartridges and a car from the possession of the accused.

The deceased identified as Banti, from Babail village in Panipat, had married to girl from the same village three years ago. The victim’s family had accused the deceased wife’s kin of the murder. According to the police, the arrested accused have been identified as Surender Singh, cousin of the victim’s wife and a resident of Babail village and Rajesh, Shyam Sunder and Anil of Chulkana village in Panipat, and Rinku of Bastara village in Karnal. Accused Rajesh and Rinku are relatives of Surender and helped him in killing Banti after he married their sister against family wishes.

The police have also recovered four country-made pistols, 20 live cartridges, two empty cartridges and a car from the possession of the accused.

The police claimed that the accused have confessed to committing the murder. The victim had moved to Panipat after his marriage and was running a grocery shop here.

Panipat SP Shashank Kumar Sawan said that the accused were arrested from Samalkha on Friday evening, and they have been booked for the murder and Arms Act.

He said that the accused Surender hatched a conspiracy to kill Banti, and he brought the weapons and cartridges from UP and Bihar around three months back. On February 20, the accused Rajesh, Shyam Sunder, Anil and Rinku came on two bikes and shot Banti dead when he was working in his vegetable stall near Ansal city in Panipat.

The police said that Rinku has a criminal record and had been sentenced to 20 years in jail in a murder case registered at Madhuban police station in 2012. In 2018, he was released on bail.

The police said that the accused were produced in the court which sent Surender, Rinku and Anil to three-day police remand, while Rajesh and Shyam Sunder were sent to judicial custody.