3 yrs on, main accused in advocate double murder case held from MP

Hoshiarpur, July 13

After three years, the police have arrested the main accused in the famous double murder case, in which the bodies of senior advocate Bhagwant Kishore Gupta and his assistant woman lawyer Siya Khullar were found charred in a burning car. He has been arrested from Shahdol in Madhya Pradesh.

Addressing a press conference at the local Police Ground, SSP Sartaj Singh Chahal said that on November 22, 2020, Sumanendra Gupta, son of advocate Bhagwant Kishore Gupta, a resident of Model Town, had lodged a complaint with the police. He had said that on the night of Diwali on November 13, his father advocate Bhagwant Kishore Gupta and his assistant advocate Siya alias Geetu were killed by her husband Ashish Kushwaha. He had said that the accused had taken the bodies to Purhiran bypass in a car and set it ablaze by hitting the car against a tree to make it look like an accident. The SSP said that the complainant had expressed apprehension that it was not an accident but Siya Khullar’s husband Ashish Kushwaha, his associates Sunil Kumar and Kapil Kumar, had called their other accomplices from village Mangalore in Bulandshahar of Uttar Pradesh to kill his father and Siya Khullar.

SSP Chahal said that after the above complaint, the police had registered a case under Section 302, 201, 120B and 404 of the IPC on November 22, 2020 at the Model Town police station. He said that on November 23, the police had arrested Kapil Kushwaha, one of the accused in the said case, from Mangalore, under Salempur police station, district Bulandshahr, UP. He said that while the main accused Ashish Kushwaha and Sunil Kumar were missing, the court had declared both of them absconders on December 5, 2022. After this, the police had registered another case against both the accused.

It is worth mentioning that the complainant in the case had filed a writ petition in Punjab and Haryana High Court. The matter was brought to the High Court’s notice after victim advocate Bhagwant Kishore Gupta’s son Sumanendra Gupta filed the petition through counsel Amit Chaudhary, for among other things, constituting a special investigation team for concluding the probe in the FIR registered on November 22, 2020, for murder and other offences at Model Town police station in Hoshiarpur district.

On July 5, the Punjab and Haryana High Court had asked the Director General of Police to look into the matter personally. The direction had came two months after the state was directed to make every effort to nab the fugitive and place on record the latest status report. But the state counsel was praying for more time to file the latest status report in compliance of the order dated May 2.

Responding to the questions of the journalists, the SSP said that a special team was formed under the leadership of SP Major Singh to nab the above accused, in which DSP City Palwinder Singh and Inspector Karnail, in-charge of Model Town police station were also included. He said that in order to arrest the accused, the police had been conducting raids in collaboration with the police of various states for the last three years. During this, the police got a secret information that the main accused was hiding in Madhya Pradesh. After this, the team along with the police of Madhya Pradesh planned and conducted a covert operation and the main accused Ashish Kumar alias Ashish Singh alias Ashish Kushwaha was arrested from Mohalla Patel Nagar under Kolwali police station, district Shahdol, Madhya Pradesh.

He said that after presenting the accused in the court and taking him on transit remand, he has been brought here. The SSP claimed that during interrogation, he has confessed that he had killed his wife Siya Khullar and senior advocate Bhagwant Kishore with help of his associates Kapil Kushwaha and Sunil. The accused told the police that when Siya Khullar and Bhagwant Kishore Gupta were performing puja sitting on the ground, after strangling them to death, their bodies were put in the car and taken to the said spot. The car was set ablaze so that the it could be depicted as an accident. The district police chief said that after the incident, the accused kept changing different places, mobiles and vehicles.