Deported from Australia on her complaint, Punjab man kills woman’s father in Ludhiana, informs her on WhatsApp

The FIR has been registered at Mullanpur Dakha police station against the suspects identified as Ranjit Singh Kahlon, alias Ranjit Bath of Bath Kalan village, Jalandhar, and his nephew Baljinder Singh, alias Gulli for murdering the old man and then dumping his body in bushes. Ranjit is a local Punjabi singer and would upload videos on TikTok, said police.

Saggar in his statement said that after his father, who was an LIC agent and lived alone in Dugri area of Ludhiana, did not return home, he filed a missing complaint at Dugri police station of Ludhiana. On the morning of August 29, they got a call to identify the body which was found in Dakha.

Absconding suspect Ranjit Singh Kahlon

According to the FIR, after the body was identified, he informed his sister Kirandeep in Australia. She then revealed that some months ago she had come in contact with Ranjit Singh Kahlon via the TikTok app, and they became friends. Ranjit then reached Australia to live with her in March this year.

Kirandeep further claimed that Ranjit started harassing her and she also discovered that he was an alcoholic. She said that Ranjit started forcing her to divorce her husband and marry him, or else he would kill her and her entire family back home in Punjab. She further said after Ranjit caused a brawl outside her home in Australia under the influence of liquor, she filed a police complaint following which he was deported to India in June this year. However, according to Kirandeep, he again reached Australia some days ago earlier this month but was deported from the airport.

“On August 25, around 8 pm, Ranjit along with his nephew Gulli reached Ludhiana and murdered my father Ravinder Singh Paul,” states the woman’s statement as told by her brother to the police. “He (Ranjit) then messaged me on WhatsApp and also called to inform and apologise that he has killed my father and his body was lying in the bushes,” adds the woman’s (Kirandeep) statement in the FIR as told by her brother.

Speaking to The Indian Express, Saggar said that he was always against his sister’s decision to get into a live-in relationship with Ranjit Singh. “Had she told me this beforehand, I could have saved my father, but we were not aware of the threats he was giving to her. My mother had passed away during Covid, so my father lived alone at our house in Dugri. Sometimes he would come to live with me also,” said Saggar, who lives in Kila Raipur village of Ludhiana.

Inspector Kulwinder Singh, SHO, Mullanpur Dakha police station, said that Gulli has been arrested. “He has confessed that they killed the woman’s father by strangling him. Ranjit is still absconding,” said the inspector. “The woman was in a live-in relationship with Ranjit in Australia but the relationship soured and he was deported on her complaint,” he added.

The FIR has been registered under sections 103 (1) (murder) and 3(5) (two or more persons committing crime with common intention) of BNS at Dakha police station.