Journalism of Courage
An elderly couple was found murdered inside their posh Ludhiana Colony residence on Wednesday night, with police suspecting the hand of someone known behind the incident.
According to investigators, the victims — Sukhdev Singh (68), a former Central Public Works Department (CPWD) officer, and his wife Gurmeet Kaur (65) — were found dead inside their Bhai Randhir Singh Nagar apartment on Ferozepur Road on Wednesday night. The police said that the alleged murderer had entered the house in a “friendly manner” and fled after scaling the wall after the crime.
Based on the statement of the victim’s daughter, Rupinder Kaur — who stays at Raghunath Enclave, a few kilometres away — the police said that the incident took place around 9.15 pm. Rupinder told the police that she was speaking to her father on the phone when the suspected killer entered the house.
She told the police that while on the call, she heard a knock on her father’s door and her father politely asking the visitor to come inside. After a few minutes, she heard loud screams and the call was disconnected, she said. Later, a woman who lives near Rupinder’s parent’s house called her to inform that someone had attacked Sukhdev and Gurmeet. Rupinder then rushed to her parent’s house and found them lying in a pool of blood, she said.
According to Rupinder’s statement, the neighbours had seen a man run away from the spot and claimed that the suspect was a turbaned youth.
The police have registered a first information report (FIR) against an unknown person under section 302 (murder) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) at Sarabha Nagar police station based on Rupinder’s statement.
Contacted, Ludhiana city assistant commissioner of police (west), Talwinder Singh Gill, said, “No locks were found broken, which indicates that the entry was not forced. No valuables were stolen, pointing to the fact that the motive of teh crime was not to rob the elderly couple. It is unclear if the person was known to the couple or not because they might have opened the door to a stranger too, who might have entered on the pretext of some work.”
The couple had two sons too who are settled in Canada and Scotland, respectively, said the police. They were to leave for Scotland in a few days to spend some time with one of their sons, said the police, who found luggage packed inside the house.
Surjit Singh, the victims’ son-in-law, said that they used to visit either Canada or Scotland every year. “This time they were to go to Scotland for a few days and were busy preparing for the journey,” he claimed. The bodies will be creamated on Fiday.
