Couple found dead at home; cop among three booked

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, October 16

In a shocking incident, a couple committed suicide in their house in Fairland colony located on the Majitha road here. The incident came to light when the couple did not open the doors of their room even after repeated knocks by their son this morning.

He was sleeping in the adjoining room. He immediately raised the alarm. The members of the family broke open the door only to find the victims, identified as Sunil Kumar (50) and his wife Monika (44), dead. The police authorities said while Sunil Kumar committed suicide by hanging, the reason behind the death of Monika, whose body was lying on the bed, was yet to be ascertained. They had scribbled the names of the suspects on the walls of the room.

The police have booked three persons, including a policeman, on the charge of culpable homicide. Those booked were identified as Gurwinder Singh, who is a cop, Navneet Singh and Thomas. No arrest has been made so far.

The police took the victims’ bodies into their custody and sent the bodies for a postmortem. According to information, Gurwinder Singh had sold his house to Sunil Kumar. However, later he came to know that there was a loan of Rs 16 lakh standing against the house. As he was unable to repay the loan, the bank authorities were threatening to take possession of the house.

A relative of the victims said the couple had two sons, one of whom was studying in Chandigarh, while Sunil’s mother Sharda also lived with them. He said Sunil had a medical store at Khankot village. He said recently he had bought a house from Gurwinder Singh, a cop. He alleged the accused had taken a loan of Rs 16 lakh from the bank and he had not told about this to the victims. He was also not getting the property registered in his name. Sunil came to know about the loan when bank authorities came to him after not getting loan instalments.

This cheating left Sunil Kumar shattered. He alleged his employee Thomas also showed a loss in the earnings of his medical store. Unable to cop up with both the situations, he committed suicide.