india

Updated: Jan 08, 2019 14:08 IST

The husband of a sarpanch candidate owing allegiance to the ruling Congress and two of his aides were arrested on Monday at Khalihara village in Jandiala subdivision of Amritsar district for allegedly killing his brother-in-law to get sympathy votes in the recently held panchayat elections, police said.

Those arrested are Jasmer Singh (47), a former sarpanch, his aides Titu Singh (48) of the same village and Jagir Singh (50) of Dashmesh Nagar in Amritsar city. Jasmer’s brother-in-law, Tejinder Singh (50) of Baba Sri Chand Colony in Amritsar was murdered at Khalihara on December 29, a day before elections for panchayats were held in Punjab.

Police said Jasmer also wanted to avenge the death of his brother Palwinder Singh alias Sona, an alleged militant, who was killed in a police encounter in 1991, since he suspected that Tejinder had tipped off cops about him.

Initially, police had booked six persons, including the husband of Akali Dal candidate Sandeep Kaur and two of his supporters on the basis of Jasmer’s complaint.

Jasmer’s wife Rupinder Kaur lost the election by 65 votes to Sandeep Kaur. He had told the police that on December 29 morning when he along with Titu, his domestic help, and Tejinder was canvassing in the village for his wife, Sandeep Kaur’s husband Harjinder Singh and five other men from the village assaulted them with sticks and sharp-edged weapons.

He had claimed that while he and Titu managed to flee, Harjinder and his aides caught hold of Tejinder and hit him on the head with a wooden rod several times, killing him on the spot.

Addressing a press conference, senior superintendent of police (SSP-rural) Parampal Singh a said during investigation they found something fishy in Jasmer’s statement.

“During his questioning, Jasmer confessed to have killed Tejider to get the sympathy of voters in favor of his wife besides taking revenge for brother Sona’s death. We have o seized the spade used for killing Tejinder,” he said.

A case under Sections 302 (murder), 506 (criminal intimidation), 148 (rioting, armed with deadly weapon), 149 (unlawful assembly in prosecution of common object) of the Indian Penal Code was registered against the arrested accused at the Jandiala police station.