Rajpura murder by hired men

Aman Sood
Tribune News Service
Patiala, December 18

With the arrest of three persons, including a property dealer, the Patiala police today claimed to have cracked the murder case of Swaran Singh, father-in-law of IAS officer and Markfed MD Varun Roojam.

The police said Jagtar Singh, a property dealer allegedly involved in fraudulent dealings, was the main conspirator and hired contract killers from Haryana to kill Swaran Singh, 72, near Rajpura last month. Jagtar Singh and the “killers”, Kartik Chauhan and Satwinder Satta, have been arrested.

Jagtar Singh, who owned only 1.5 acres, had bought a Mercedes car worth Rs 73 lakh, leased over 40 acres and bought two flats worth Rs 1.5 crore, besides other high-end vehicles. Patiala SSP Mandeep Sidhu said, “Swaran Singh used to visit a religious dera every Sunday. On November 18, he was stopped while returning to Chandigarh and shot in the temple and chest. Initially, Jagtar tried to mislead the police by claiming that his family members might have killed him for property.”

The SSP said despite  owning only 1.5 acres, his lavish lifestyle aroused suspicion.

Swaran Singh had sold some property in 2008 and invested the money through Jagtar Singh. “However, Jagtar made investments in his own name and gave fake property-related documents to the victim to fool him. Swaran Singh’s brother-in-law had also invested money through Jagtar and even his shares worth around Rs 1.5 crore was usurped by him,” said CIA incharge Shaminder Singh. The police said Jagtar had been paying money to Swaran Singh for the past around 10 years showing that to be the rent proceeds from the residential property and annual lease amount from agricultural land. 

“After Swaran Singh became suspicious about the entire episode and started making enquiries, Jagtar hired contract killers. He promised to pay them Rs 15 lakh each, besides allowing a share in the business of car sale-purchase,” the police said. “We are now questioning Jagtar to know if he had used a similar modus operandi in some other deals as well,” they said.