Isham Singh, who had shot dead Haryana Jan Chetna Party’s Amarjeet Kaur Sodhi, 58, in Ambala on Sunday and later shot himself too, was serving a life sentence in a murder case and currently out on parole, police said on Monday.
Isham, a resident of Karnal’s Amarpur village in Gharaunda block, was convicted in a 2010 murder case by a trial court in 2015 and sentenced to life imprisonment.
Now in his late 50s, he had been out on parole from the Ambala Central Jail since April last year, owing to the Covid-19 pandemic.
On Sunday, he had fired three shots at Amarjeet at her friend’s house in Baldev Nagar, hitting her in the head and foot, and later killed himself too.
Families had business ties
Amarjeet’s elder son Gagandeep Singh told the police in his complaint that Isham had liquor business ties with his family for the past 10 years. But, he was unsure what led to the confrontation between his mother and Isham, and later firing.
Police are also probing the role of Amarjeet’s friend at whose house she was shot dead. “The friend says she was in her dining room, while Amarjeet and Isham were in a bedroom for a meeting. She had prepared tea for them, while Amarjeet asked her to wait outside. Isham had a .32-bore revolver in his hand with his finger on the trigger when she rushed in after hearing gunshots,” said Hamir Singh, in-charge, Baldev Nagar police station.
{{/usCountry}}Police are also probing the role of Amarjeet’s friend at whose house she was shot dead. “The friend says she was in her dining room, while Amarjeet and Isham were in a bedroom for a meeting. She had prepared tea for them, while Amarjeet asked her to wait outside. Isham had a .32-bore revolver in his hand with his finger on the trigger when she rushed in after hearing gunshots,” said Hamir Singh, in-charge, Baldev Nagar police station.
{{/usCountry}}“A tenant lives on the first floor of the house. She claims she didn’t hear anything except the firing because of the volume of her television. We’re investigating the case from every angle, as the only accused has died,” said Singh, adding that autopsies were conducted at the Ambala civil hospital on Monday.
Victim contested MC polls unsuccessfully
Amarjeet had contested the recent Ambala civic polls from ward number 6 and got 1,433 votes, but lost to BJP’s Archana Chhibber by a margin of 834 votes.
She had earlier served as district president of Congress’s woman wing and switched to Venod Sharma’s HJCP on December 14 last year, when Shakti Rani Sharma was declared the party’s mayoral candidate.
Sources said Isham didn’t want Amarjeet to contest the elections and had also threatened her on this.
The victim leaves behind her husband, Paramjeet Singh, and two sons, Gagandeep Singh and Jasbir Singh, who are married and run a business of threads.