Baker’s son shot at father over property, arrested

Mohit Khanna

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, February 21

The city police today arrested the son of a bakery owner for shooting at the latter near his bakery on February 11. The suspect has been identified as Anil Kumar, son of Joginderpal, who was shot at in the back.

In police custody, Anil Kumar confessed that he shot at his father over a property dispute.

“During preliminary investigation, it has come to light that Anil wanted a lion’s share in his father’s property. So, he hatched a plan to eliminate his father,” said Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) Narinder Bhargav.

The DCP said Anil met Mohit and Prince, both residents of the Amarpura area, through his former employee. Anil learnt that both Prince and Mohit were involved in the smuggling of weapons. He placed an order of three countrymade pistols with them.

The duo soon left for Bihar. They brought three weapons from Katihar and sold them to Anil for Rs 70,000.

On February 11, when Jogiderpal was arranging bakery items at his shop, Anil allegedly shot at him in the back with one of the pistols. To hoodwink the police, Anil stated that he was having a pastry when two persons came on a bike and shot at his father. Anil’s brother Sanjiv was also present in the shop but he also could not spot the assailants.

During questioning, Anil said he hatched a plan to shoot his father taking a cue from the firing incident that took place at an RSS Shakha in Kadwai Nagar on January 19 and the shooting of Shiv Sena leader Amit Arora on February 4. Anil hoped that the police would keep on suspecting the involvement of the same assailants in this case too.

However, after a thorough investigation, a police team reached the conclusion that the shooting was not carried out to create terror rather someone having personal enmity with Joginderpal had shot him.

The bikers caught on a CCTV camera were also not seen firing shots at Joginderpal. Even the timing of the bikers did not match the timing when Joginderpal was shot at, said DCP Narinder Bhargav.

Meanwhile, Anil went to Delhi and destroyed the mobile SIM card he was using. He bought a new one and created a fake Whatsapp ID. He started sending threat messages from this ID.

When the police learnt that Anil had fled to Delhi, they got suspicious about him.

Today, he was arrested by a team of the Division No. 2 police station from Rajpura. During questioning, Anil said after the shooting incident, he had dumped the pistols near Civil Hospital. The police team carried out a search near Civil Hospital to locate the weapon used in the crime.

The police have slapped various sections of the Arms Act against Mohit and Prince for smuggling illegal weapons.