In what appears to be a case of suicide pact, a 30-year-old man and his teenage sister-in-law from Batala in Gurdaspur district committed suicide by consuming some poisonous substance, before their bodies were found in the Golden Temple complex on Saturday.
The deceased have been identified as Amrit Pal Singh, alias Tinku (30), a resident of Daule Nangal village and Kirandeep Kaur (18) of Labour Colony in Batala.
It, however, has not been established if they consumed the poison on the temple premises itself.
Their bodied were recovered from the Parikrama of the Golden Temple at 5am, police informed.
In some videos posted on the social media (YouTube), the victims had earlier claimed that they were forced to live in penury because of their families besides accusing the police of harassing them.
They had also announced their intention to commit suicide on social networking site Facebook. The police said that the deceased were in a relationship and were on the run since January this year.
In a post titled ‘Please Share It: Justice or Suicide’ on his Facebook account on June 15, Amritpal and Kirandeep had alleged that they were on the run because of their families and the Batala police and were outside the state then.
Meanwhile, Kirandeep’s parents have accused Amritpal of demanding dowry from Kirandeep’s sister to whom Amritpal was married. They also charged him with luring Kirandeep, who was a minor then, and eloping with her.
In a post titled ‘Please Share It: Justice or Suicide’ on his Facebook account on June 15, Amritpal and Kirandeep had alleged that they were on the run because of their families and the Batala police and were outside the state then.
Meanwhile, Kirandeep’s parents have accused Amritpal of demanding dowry from Kirandeep’s sister to whom Amritpal was married. They also charged him with luring Kirandeep, who was a minor then, and eloping with her.
In another update on Amritpal’s Facebook account, Kirandeep claims that she had run away from her house due to the bad behaviour of her family and it had nothing to do with.
“My family members and my sister's father-in-law bribed the Batala police to file false dowry case and suicide case against Amritpal Singh,” she purportedly wrote on his Facebook wall.
“I have several evidences which prove my innocence but everything was ignored by Batala police. We have lost money and belongings. Now we don’t have anything to eat and no place to live. We have decided to end our lives on July 15 and we have also posted our statements on YouTube,” the update further says.
Bhagwan Singh, in-charge, Galliara police post, said the victims’ bodies have been sent for post-mortem. The matter is being probed.”