E-Paper
Ludhiana man’s kin strangle him, give it suicide angle
Implicated neighbours in abetment to suicide case after hanging the body and writing a fake suicide note; autopsy found victim was strangled to death, helping police nail the trio.
Investigating into an abetment to suicide case, the police claim to have discovered that it was in fact the victim’s mother, brother and wife who strangled him to death and hanged the body to make it appear like a suicide, before framing five of their neighbours for it.
Police claimed that the victim’s brother Sukhdev Singh, mother Manjit Kaur and wife Kiranpal Kaur confessed before the police that Rachhpal Singh was an acute alcoholic, who used to hurl curses at them and misbehave under influence.
Irked by his behaviour, they conspired to strangle him to death using a rope. After the murder, they concocted a theory of Rachhpal having committed suicide, and implicated their neighbours for it. They wrote a fake suicide note and produced it before the police to tighten the case against their neighbours.
Additional deputy commissioner of police (ADCP, City 3) Surinder Lamba said the victim, Rachhpal, 28, a resident of Lalton Kalan village, was found hanging on August 4, following which his brother, Sukhdev Singh, approached the police with a suicide note by Rachhpal, wherein he held his neighbours responsible for pushing him to end his life.
Lamba said Rachhpal had a rivalry with his neighbours who had assaulted him on July 12, following which a case was registered against Vicky, Tarni and three others at Sadar police station. After Rachhpal’s death and recovery of the suicide note, the police had registered a case of abetment to suicide against the accused on August 5, and sent the body to civil hospital for autopsy.
“The autopsy report revealed that Rachhpal did not die by hanging, but was strangled to death. With this shocking revelation, the police started zeroing in on his brother Sukhdev, mother Manjit and wife Kiranpal,” the ADCP said.
“The police brought the trio in for interrogation during which they confessed to have murdered Rachhpal,” he said, adding that the abetment to suicide case against their five neighbours will be quashed.
The rope used in the crime has been recovered, he added.
A case under Sections 302 (murder), 202 (intentional omission to give information of offence by person bound to inform) and 34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) has been registered against the accused.
