Sukha’s elder brother too died in police custody last year

Nikhil Bhardwaj

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, January 24

Slain gangster Sukha’s NRI parents today refused to perform his last rites, demanding arrest of the accused. Alike Sukha, his elder brother Sonu too is learnt to have died in police custody last year.

The situation is tense in Kahlwan village near Kartarpur since the murder in police custody three days ago. The family has kept Sukha’s body in a mortuary at a private hospital. Police officers tried to persuade the family to cremate the body, but they refused to relent.

Sukha’s relatives, accompanied by panchayat members, threatened to take to streets if the police failed to arrest the accused.

His parents Sudarshan Singh and Harjinder Kaur, who have come from the US, accused the police of murder. “We suspect the police connived with the killers. Circumstantial evidence clearly puts the role of the escorting party under the scanner. Merely dismissing or suspending them won’t serve any purpose till the main accused are not put behind bars,” said Sudarshan.

Demanding a CBI inquiry, he alleged: “We don’t have faith in the police. Our elder son Sonu too had died in police custody last year, but the police had cited jaundice as the cause of death”.

The relatives alleged the police had been rounding up Sukha’s relatives for questioning even as the rival gang members were roaming around freely.

More threats on FB

Threatening posts on Sukha’s FB page, being operated from England, continue. “Insaaf police nahi assi karange golian nal (we will deliver justice with guns)”, is the latest post.

Earlier, threats of taking revenge from Inspector Inderjit and Sub-Inspector Shiv Kumar, who had nabbed Sukha, were posted.