Main accused arrested for Patiala petrol pump murders

Tribune News Service

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Patiala, June 30

Almost a fortnight after three youths shot dead two men and looted Rs 11,000 from a petrol pump, the police on Saturday arrested Lakhandeep Singh Waris Randhawa (21), the main accused.

Randhawa was nabbed by the Counter Intelligence Wing, Jalandhar. His accomplices, Sikandar Singh (23), a philosophy student at Punjabi University, Patiala, and Harpreet Singh Makhan (18), a school dropout who was doing odd jobs, had been arrested two days after the June 17 crime.

High on smack and whisky, the trio had decided to make a quick buck so as to go abroad and release a Punjabi music album. They headed for a filling station at Chamarheri village on Sikandar’s motorcycle. They first sent Harpreet for a recce of the spot. On receiving the all-clear, they struck around 10:10 pm.

Sikandar and Lakhandeep shot Canter driver and part-time employee Kuldeep Singh and snatched the cash from him. They then killed Devinder Singh of Alampur village when he tried to stop them.

On a tip-off that the main accused would pass through Jalandhar while travelling from Patiala to his village in Dera Baba Nanak, the police laid a trap near the Jalandhar bus stand and arrested Lakhandeep. He had reportedly quit studies in 2013-14 after completing Class XII and had started working in Apollo Hospital, Ludhiana, as a billing operator in 2016. “However, he left the job in July 2017 and started working as a sales representative, based in the Professor Colony, Patiala,” the police said.

Meanwhile, Kuldeep’s mother said, “Ours is now a family of widows. Kuldeep was not only taking care of his own family but also of his widowed sister-in-law and her two children after his elder brother died a few years ago.”

“Three drug-addicted youths shot dead my son without any fault of his. The government must help us,” she said.