The body of Simranjit Singh, 20, who was shot dead at a gas station in the US last week, is expected to reach his hometown Mohali by the end of this week.
Victim’s brother-in-law Hartejpreet Chauhan told HT over phone from Sacramento in California that they will receive the death certificate on Monday, following which they will apply at the Indian consulate in San Francisco to transport the body to India. The process may take three to four days.
Hartejpreet said the consulate officials had contacted the family on Saturday and assured the processing of transport papers at the earliest. “The body is expected to reach Mohali by Saturday if all formalities are completed on time,” he said.
Simranjit had been staying with his elder sister Harpinder Kaur and her husband Hartejpreet after moving to the US in October 2015. His parents, Ranjit Singh Bhangoo and Manjit Kaur, stay at Sector 70 here. They were visiting their another daughter, Rajwinder Kaur, in New Zealand when the incident happened.
Hartejpreet said they were initially planning to travel the US, but now they would be reaching India in the next three days. An engineering student at American River College and working part time at a gas station for the past one year, he was shot dead by three locals following an altercation with his co-worker on Tuesday night. “He was in the wrong place at wrong time,” Hartejpreet had told HT.
{{/usCountry}}Hartejpreet said they were initially planning to travel the US, but now they would be reaching India in the next three days. An engineering student at American River College and working part time at a gas station for the past one year, he was shot dead by three locals following an altercation with his co-worker on Tuesday night. “He was in the wrong place at wrong time,” Hartejpreet had told HT.
{{/usCountry}}‘Resentment among Sikh community’
Hartejpreet said while family is shattered after the incident, there is a lot of resentment among the local Sikh community. "He was a very nice guy. I'm crying for him," Majur Kaler, a community member and owner of a liquor store next to the gas station, told Sacramento-based KCRA-TV.
“I was there, like, 10 o'clock, around 10:15, 10:10, like that. So, I heard that shot, like maybe, six, seven times, he was quoted as saying.
The community has also called upon the local and federal law enforcement agencies to thoroughly investigate the crime and nab the accused at the earliest. “So far the police have not classified the murder a hate crime,” he said.
According to a press release uploaded by the Sacramento county police on July 29, they are looking for two suspects: Rodolfo Zavala, 23, and Ramon Zavala, 15. Alexander Lopez, 40, has already been arrested.