Karnal man shot dead in US robbery, was family’s sole earning member

Washington, February 24

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A masked assailant shot dead Karnal man Maninder Singh at a convenience store in Los Angeles in the early hours of Saturday, the local police said.

Hailing from Uplana village in Assandh block of Karnal, Maninder had arrived in the US less than six months ago and had sought political asylum. He was working at a 7-Eleven grocery store in Whittier City in Los Angeles County of California. The only earning member of his family, he used to send money to his wife and two children back home, his relatives in the US said.

The Whittier Police Department said the incident occurred at 5.43 am on Saturday. It appears the suspect entered the store with a semi-automatic handgun with the intent to commit a robbery, the police said. “For unknown reasons the suspect fired the handgun killing the clerk,” the police said releasing a picture of the suspect. Authorities are still seeking the robber, who got away on foot with an unknown amount of cash.

One of the family members told mediapersons that they did not have the resources to bring Maninder’s body home. Assandh MLA Shamsher Singh Gogi said has approached the district administration for the early return of Maninder’s body with the help of the Union External Affairs Ministry.

He said Maninder went to California after selling one-and-a-half acre of family land in May 2019. He is survived by his wife Amandeep Kaur, daughter Seerat and son Shaan. Karnal Deputy Commissioner Nishant Kumar Yadav assured the MLA and the family members that efforts would be made to bring Maninder’s body back at the earliest. — PTI

(With inputs from Parveen Arora in Karnal)