Abohar murder case: Amit Doda surrenders before Fazilka police
Amit Doda, an accused in the Abohar Dalit murder case and nephew of SAD leader and liquor baron Shiv Lal Doda, surrendered before the Abohar superintendent of police, headquarters, on Saturday night.
Amit Doda, an accused in the Abohar Dalit murder case and nephew of SAD leader and liquor baron Shiv Lal Doda, surrendered before the Abohar superintendent of police, headquarters, on Saturday night.
Shiv Lala, who is also an accused in the case, is absconding. Punjab Police had issued a look-out circular against the two on Saturday. The two were booked in connection with the murder of 27-year-old Bhim Sain, whose limbs were chopped off by suspected henchmen of the liquor baron in Abohar on December 11.
National Scheduled Castes Commission vice-chairman Raj Kumar Verka, meanwhile, instructed director general of police Suresh Arora to provide security to the families of the deceased and injured Gurjant Singh Janta. “There are inputs that the accused may try to eliminate the witnesses,” Verka said.
Read: Was in business meeting with Cong leader at time of murder: Amit Doda
Meanwhile, at a press conference held in Bathinda, inspector general of police (IGP) Jitendra Jain said Amit had been sent to police custody till December 30. With this, as many as 13 accused in the case had been arrested, while eight, including Shiv Lal, are still absconding. He said the police would seek permission from the court to conduct a lie detector test on the accused and suspects, and if they refused to undergo the test it would be presented as evidence against them.
Jain, who was accompanied by Ferozepur deputy inspector general of police Amar Singh Chahal, Fazilka SSP Inder Mohan Singh Bhatti and Bathinda SP (headquarters) Nanak Singh, said the police were looking for Shiv Lal and police teams had been sent to Nadaun in Hamirpur district in Himachal Pradesh, Jaipur and Sri Ganganagar in Rajasthan and to Delhi and he would be nabbed soon.
Jain said the police had got the CCTV footage recovered from the farmhouse, which had been sent for forensic examination. Besides, the police had seized four weapons and three vehicles used in the crime.
Jain said they had received no communication from authorities about the formation of the new special investigation team (SIT), so the existing SIT led by Chahal was interrogating the matter. Jain said the police would provide security to the victims’ families in case they sought it.
The police said there were 10 criminal cases registered against deceased Bhim Sain and three against injured Gurjant Singh. Besides, there were five cases registered against Harpreet Singh, four against Amarjeet Singh, three each against Gulabia and Radhe Shyam and one each against Vicky Pandit, Happy and Wazir Singh.
He said a detailed departmental inquiry against the two station house officers (SHOs) suspended in this connection had been initiated, which might lead to termination of their services. The inquiry would look into the allegations against Bhahawala SHO Harinder Singh Chameli of staying at the same farmhouse where the crime took place. Besides Chameli, Abohar city-1 SHO Abhinav Chauhan was suspended for not acting on time on the rape complaint.
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Read: Punjab govt forms new SIT to investigate Abohar murder case