Kabaddi player thrashed, shot dead near SSP office in Ludhiana’s Jagraon; Opp slams AAP govt

SSP Ankur Gupta said around 3 pm, Tejpal was rushed to a hospital with a bullet injury in the chest, but he was declared “dead on arrival”.

“Prima facie, it is a case of personal rivalry. The accused and the victim had some fights in the past, but they did not inform the police,” said Gupta.

Eyewitnesses informed the police that assailants first crashed their car into Tejpal’s vehicle. They then thrashed him before opening fire at the kabaddi player and fled the spot a white Maruti Swift car.

SSP Gupta said that two suspects have been identified as Honey and Kala, both from Roomi village of Jagraon. “A third suspect has been identified as Gagan of Moga, but it is yet to be verified. We have dispatched teams to arrest the suspects,” said the SSP, adding CCTV footage is being analysed and further investigation is underway.

A First Information Report (FIR) was being registered at the Jagraon City police station, he said,

Tejpal Singh had participated in a number of circle kabaddi tournaments at district level.

After the incident, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLA from Jagraon, Sarvjit Kaur Manuke reached the house of the victim and assured the family that the accused will be arrested soon.

The BJP, however, hit out at the ruling party saying “law and order” has been “murdered in Punjab”.

The party’s Chandigarh unit in a post on X said that while “criminals rule the streets”, the Punjab government “sleeps like Kumbhkaran”. Targeting Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann who alongwith AAP national convenor was in Gujarat, it said, “From Gujarat stage, Mann should admit that he hasn’t made Rangla Punjab, he has turned it into Khooni Punjab”.

Congress MLA and former minister Pargat Singh said that while Punjab’s youth fall victim to bullets, the government watches helplessly. “The brutal killing of Tejpal is proof that criminals roam free while law and order has collapsed. Families are living in fear, criminals are emboldened. Punjab needs safety, not more empty promises,” he said on X.

Leader of Opposition in Punjab Vidhan Sabha, Partap Singh Bajwa listed several major crimes that took place this week — attack on Satish Kumar, pesticide shop owner and uncle of RTI activist Manik Goyal, in Mansa on Tuesday; daylight robbery at gunpoint at a jewellery store in Jalandhar on Thursday morning and unidentified assailants opening fire on a man atMachhiwara the same evening; and Tejpal’s murder on Friday.

“The people of Punjab live in fear while the CM — also the Home Minister — sleeps at the wheel. This is Mann’s so-called “Rangla Punjab” — where gangsters roam free and the youth die on the streets. From the drug menace to daily murders — Punjab bleeds while AAP keeps making excuses,” Bajwa said.

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