Nawanshahr traders’ body vice-prez found murdered

The vice-president of Nawanshahr Traders' Association, Ravi Sobti, was reportedly brutally murdered, triggering panic and grief among traders and residents of the town. Sobti had been missing since Thursday night and his family had lodged a 'missing person' complaint with the police after he failed to return home. Acting on the basis of technical surveillance and phone location tracking, the police recovered his body from the Balachaur area under shocking circumstances.

According to information received, Ravi Sobti had gone out on Thursday evening to bring a migrant woman employed at his house from village Mahalo but did not return. Despite overnight search by the police following the family's complaint, his whereabouts remained unknown until his body was traced. The police recovered Sobti's body from a car in the Balachaur area, where it had been brutally attacked with sharp-edged weapons. In an apparent attempt to destroy evidence, the accused allegedly set the body on fire while it was lying on the rear seat of the vehicle.

Preliminary investigations revealed that Sobti was murdered within Nawanshahr itself, after which the accused took the body in a car towards the Balachaur region with the intention of disposing of it. The police have taken the car into custody and sent the body to the Civil Hospital for post-mortem examination.

Informed sources said that the police have detained a few migrant persons in connection with the murder and are interrogating them to ascertain the motive behind the crime.

A case has been registered and further investigation is underway to establish the sequence of events and fix accountability.