NEW DELHI, November 22: Surinder, 40, survived on the night of November 10 in the lanes of Mundka because the first bullet, which struck the back of his head, knocked him unconscious. Another bullet struck his neck, while a third fractured his ring finger on the right hand. His companions, the then Samata Party candidate from Nangloi Jat, Ved Singh and Ishwar Singh, caught many more. Ved Singh died on the spot, Ishwar a few hours later.Twelve days after the incident, Surinder has returned home from the Jaipur Golden Hospital. Surinder says he has no clue about the identity of the assailants. He says he did not even see them that night because he was standing with his back towards the alley, where the assailants are suspected to have been hiding.About the five men arrested by the Delhi Police in connection with the incident, he says: ``Sanjay, Amandeep, Bhinder and Naresh are all residents of Mundka and have a reputation for being bad characters. I cannot say if they were BJP men, they seemed to be working for all parties. I don't know anything about Satbir''.Like Ved Singh, Surinder had been with the BJP for the past 10 years. But he says he owed his allegiance to Ved Singh - who in turn was Sahib Singh's Verma's eyes and ears in Mundka - more than the party. So when Ved Singh switched over to the Samata Party to contest the assembly polls, Surinder followed him.He isn't sure whether the switchover had anything to do with the murder. But he also refutes the police claim that Ved Singh was a victim of inter-gang rivalry. He points out, as do several village elders and youth like Om Prakash and Dharam, that if some BJP leaders are now saying that Ved Singh was a gangster, they are conveniently forgetting that the BJP used Ved Singh to win the previous assembly polls and the subsequent Lok Sabha elections.``I was in Ishwar Singh's house (midway between Ved Singh's office on New Rohtak Road and his palatial house inside Mundka) that night. Ved came to Ishwar's house in a Maruti Zen around 10.30 p.m. and wanted us to accompany him to a lawyer's house down the road. He was meeting a lot of people that day to ensure they were present during the inauguration of his election office the next day,'' recalls Surinder.He says two others were sitting inside the car. Shamsher, who is also a resident of Mundka, was at the wheel. Another person, who Surinder had never met before, was in the rear seat. All five then went to the lawyer, Rajinder Saini's house. While Ved, Ishwar and Surinder went inside the house, the other two remained in the car, parked about 50 yards away.When they came out of Saini's house situated on one corner of the village square, Ved Singh apparently met an acquaintance with whom he conversed for a few minutes. Surinder does not recall noticing anyone moving around suspiciously in the dark, narrow, lanes at that time. He says: ``We were about to return to the car, when there was a volley of bullets from behind. I felt a sharp pain in the back of my head, and then there was darkness.. When I opened my eyes, I was on the road. Ved and Ishwar were lying next to me''.He adds: ``For a long time, there was no one around (though there is a row of houses on both sides of the road). No one probably wanted to come out. I cried for help several times, and then some people opened their doors. I was later told that Shamsher had gone to call the police''.A little more than two hours before he died, Ved Singh had been called by the village panchayat to decide on the issue of his candidature. On the previous day, Ved Singh had agreed to withdraw from the elections in favour of the official BJP candidate and another Sahib Singh protege, Devinder Singh Shaukeen. But that day, on November 10, he had retracted his statement.Among those present at the panchayat meeting that evening was Devinder Singh Shaukeen. Chaudhary Ram Singh, a village elder, who was present at the meeting, says Ved Singh left the meeting around 9 p.m., refusing to change his stand.Ved Singh then went to his plush office on Rohtak Road, where he told his assistant, Ramesh, to ensure that all arrangements for next day's inauguration were completed by morning.Ramesh says Ved Singh left the office around 10 p.m. An hour later he came to know that the latter had been killed.
