Suspect in Jaimal Nagar firing held

Tribune News Service
Jalandhar, May 15

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DCP (investigation) Gurmeet Singh while addressing mediapersons said on the statements of the key witness, Simranjit Singh, the police had arrested one of the suspects involved in the Jaimal Nagar firing incident.

The arrested suspect has been identified as Rahul Arora of Ajit Nagar.

“Accompanied by Sukhraj Singh Lahoria and other hooligans, Rahul barged into the shop of Simranjit and miserably attacked his friend Sahil Sahu. Simranjit in his statements said the suspect, along with his associates, had reached his shop around 9 pm on Tuesday and vandalised his shop,” the DCP said.

The accused were booked under Sections 452, 427, 148, 149 and 509 of the IPC.

After almost a week after the Lovely Auto showroom firing incident, in which a man fired four bullets at himself and a woman, this was the second firing incident which was reported in the late hours on Tuesday in Jaimal Nagar.

The incident took place between 9 pm and 10 pm when a small argument between two groups of BJP and Congress workers turned ugly. Residents and commuters alleged that five bullets were fired in the air by members of the one group. However, no casualties were reported.

Sahil Sahu, a resident of Vivek Nagar, was injured badly during the incident. The police had registered a case against Sukhraj Singh (25) and Eelu (22), both residents of Santoshi Nagar. An FIR against some unknown accused were also registered. As per information, Harpal Singh Mintu, a resident of Ajit Nagar, had organised a rally for area MLA Rajinder Beri, in which Sukhraj and the victim were present with their associates. Reportedly, due to a old enmity, both of them got involved in a minor tussle and when the rally got over, around 35-40 people reached the place, looking for Sahil, who had gone to a sanitary shop of his friend Simranjit. The suspect and his associates attacked Sahil and Simranjit and damaged his shop. While Simran and Sahil’s cousin Lucky, who was also present at the shop, managed to run after the firing, Sahil was held captive by the suspect and was hit with sharp weapons. Sahil, who was immediately rushed to the Civil Hospital, said: “Sukhraj and his associates belong to the BJP and they had come to create nuisance in the rally. When I tried to stop them they started abusing us and later came with weapons to attack us.”

While one of his fingers has been broken, he had got 10 stitches on his head. He also confirmed that more than five bullets were fired during the incident.

Meanwhile, the DCP (investigation) Gurmeet Singh and the ADCP (city - 1D). Sudarvizhi maintained that they had no confirmation regarding the firing of the bullets and they were investigating the incident. They also refused to comment on the accessibility of weapons to the suspects.

With just three days left for the polling day, security arrangements in the city were also put on stake as around five bullets were fired by some unknown assailants. Moreover, the availability of weapons was also questionable, as the model code of conduct is in effect and the police claimed to have recovered more that 95 per cent of the firearms.