3 more held, family finally conducts Deepa’s last rites

Aparna Banerji

Jalandhar, September 27

After the arrest of three more people in the Hardeep Singh Deepa murder case, the family of the 30-year-old man today finally cremated his body, eight days after his murder. The fresh arrests take the total number of arrests in the murder case to seven.

Though a total of 10 accused have been named in the FIR, officials said they were on the lookout for the three still absconding.

The family had earlier been adamant on not conducting Deepa’s last rites unless all the accused in the case were caught. However, owing to the continued arrests of the accused and the deteriorating condition of Hardeep’s body (kept in morgue), the 30-year-old bodybuilder’s last rites were finally held at the Dhilwan cremation ground this afternoon.

Deepa was murdered om September 19 after he was chased and brutally attacked by his village friend-turned-rival Harpreet Singh, alias Happy, and his accomplices. His body was dumped outside his parents’ house.

While four people had already been arrested in the case, three more were nabbed in the past two days.

Malkit Singh, alias Happy, and his wife Charanjit Kaur, alias Raj were arrested on September 25. Gursharan Singh, alias Sharan, were arrested on September 26. Kingpin Harpreet Singh, alias Happy, and his aides, Navjit Singh, Amruddin and Manav Mehta had already been arrested.

Kulwinder Kaur (Harpreet’s mother), Rohit Kumar and Sukhwinder Singh remain at large. Speaking about the decision to conduct the last rites, Deepa’s cousin Iqbal Singh said, “Hardeep’s family was still adamant not to hold the last rites unless all muderers were caught. However, some family members, including me, visited his body at the morgue last night and it’s condition was bad. So it was unanimously decided to hold the cremation today.”

Dhilwan police station SHO Balbir Singh was also present at the cremation.

Body’s condition was deteriorating

Hardeep’s family was still adamant not to hold the last rites until all muderers were caught. However, when family members saw the body’s condition at the morgue, they changed their mind. — Iqbal Singh, Deepa’s cousin