Missing UK NRI murdered: Police

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, May 30

Twenty-one days after a UK-based NRI remained untraced in Punjab, the state police today said Ranjit Singh Power was “murdered” the day he arrived in Amritsar by his business associate over property issues. The accused, Baldev Singh Deol, is also an NRI from the UK.

The British Foreign Office confirmed the death, a London report said. Among other properties Power owned is the four-star Ramada Park Hall Hotel in Wolverhampton, West Midlands, UK. The police have reported the matter to the UK High Commission and would soon initiate extradition proceedings for bringing Baldev back to India. Ranjit (55) and Baldev, it is learnt, knew each other and had invested jointly in several properties in India and abroad.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (Jalandhar) Rajinder Singh said while Baldev arrived in India in February, the victim landed at Amritsar airport on May 8. His family in Britain had offered a reward of £25,000 to trace him after he did not contact them for a week.

Power's family in Britain had feared he might have been kidnapped after he uncharacteristically failed to stay in contact with them and did not catch his return flight from Amritsar on May 14.

The Punjab police said on Saturday that Ranjit was reportedly pressured by the accused to travel to India for a business deal.

The police said the accused conspired along with his nephew, Sukhdev Singh, a taxi driver, to kill Power on May 8. Sukhdev, in return, was promised monetary help for paying off his debt. He has been arrested. 

After receiving Ranjit at the airport, the three reportedly left Amritsar at night in Sukhdev's Innova. On way to Ropar, the trio reportedly drank liquor in the vehicle. "While Baldev and Sukhdev didn't drink much, they ensured the victim was drunk. The accused stopped the vehicle near the Bhakhra-Beas canal in Nakiya and strangled Ranjit with a rope. The victim's body was then dumped into the canal," said a police officer.