Partners in crime since college days

Deepkamal Kaur

Advertisement

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, January 27

Tense atmosphere was witnessed outside the palatial house of gangster Prema Lahoria (28) at Basti Mithu here today as relatives and friends (coming in cars bearing VIP numbers) gathered to express grief with his family.

Lahoria’s family had moved here from Lahore after the Partition and thus his name. The family owns about 19 acres of land near Attari. Residents recall him as a cheerful youth until he fell in wrong company. He later dropped out of college and got associated with gangs.

Read:

Lahoria, Gounder and Daljit Bhana (another gangster now in jail) had taken admission in Government Arts and Sports College. While Gounder was a discus thrower, Lahoria was an athlete. Surjit Kumar, a close family friend, pointing towards Bhana’s house adjacent to that of Lahoria’s, said: “Lahoria and Bhana were childhood friends. All changed after a fatal blow inflicted by Bhana on Lahoria’s friend Prince in May 2012. Both later joined separate gangs.”

Bhana is serving life term for the double murder of Prince murder case witnesses Deepansh and Simran in 2014.

Lahoria had got married in 2011 and had two kids, both of whom died as infants. He is survived by an elder brother and two sisters.

Baldev Singh, a neighbour, said: “Lahoria had not returned home since he along with Gounder killed Sukha Kahlwan in Phagwara in January 2015.” This was to avenge the murder of Lovely Baba, Lahoria’s friend who was killed by Kahlwan in 2014.

Justice delivered: Kahlwan kin

Kahlwan’s family based in a village in Kartarpur has expressed satisfaction over the police action. “We now feel that justice has been done to our son,” Kahlwan’s cousin Bhupinder Singh said.