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Congress councillor’s husband killed by rival faction in Amritsar
Preliminary investigations revealed that Kinda and Lovely belonged to two factions of the party’s local unit that have been at loggerheads for long.
A Congress councillor’s husband was hacked to death while trying to break up a fight between the party’s two rival factions near Walmiki Chowk in Jandiala Guru, 20 kms from Amritsar, on Friday night.
The deceased has been identified as Kulwinder Singh, aka Kinda, 45, whose wife, Kawaljit Kaur, 42, represents ward number 6 in the town’s municipality.
Police have booked Sanjeev Kumar, aka Lovely, a patron of the Congress’s local unit, his brother Kishna Kumar, and their aides, Sanjeev Kumar, aka Happy, Rishal Saini and his father Rajdeep Saini, Pargat Singh, Honey Singh, Rajinder Singh, aka Rinku Dhot, Rakesh Kumar and Krishna Arora, all of Jandiala Guru, and six unidentified people for murder. They are absconding.
Amritsar senior superintendent of police (SSP, rural) Parampal Singh said preliminary investigations revealed that Kinda and Lovely belonged to two factions of the party’s local unit that have been at loggerheads for long.
The situation remained tense in the town on Saturday. In protest, shopkeepers didn’t open their establishments while riot police teams were deployed to prevent any further violence.
Was trying to break up fight
Vijay Kumar Malhotra, whose wife is the Congress councillor from ward number 7, said: “We were celebrating my sister-in-law’s birthday at my house on Friday night. Kinda and his wife along with other Congress councillors and their families were also invited.”
Malhotra said his nephew Honey went to the market for some chore around 9:30pm. “At Walmiki Chowk, he and Rishal Saini (one of the accused) had a minor tussle. My nephew returned home, but after some time, all the accused, armed to the teeth, came outside my house and started shouting,” he said.
Malhotra said when his guests, including Kinda, tried to pacify the accused, they started abusing them.
“The accused then attacked Kinda with sharp-edged weapons and fled. We rushed Kinda to hospital, where he succumbed to his injuries,” he said.
A case has been registered under Sections 302 (murder), 506 (criminal intimidation), 148 (rioting, armed with deadly weapon) and 149 (every member of unlawful assembly guilty of offence committed in prosecution of common object) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) at the Jandiala police station.
“Raids are being conducted to arrest the accused,” said the SSP.
