Jail inmate’s murder: SIT starts probe

Nikhil Bhardwaj

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana April 23

Eyebrows are being raised over the internal probe being conducted by the officials of Central Jail, Ludhiana, into the murder of jail inmate Livtar Singh (24).

The Special Investigation Team (SIT) formed by the Police Commissioner under the leadership of DCP (Crime) Gagan Ajit Singh started its probe on Tuesday.

Two jail inmates namely Shakti, alias Bhura, and Sunny Khural, alias Machi, who were lodged in the jail for some crime, were taken on production warrant by the city police for questioning. ACP, East, Davinder Chaudhary said these two suspects were seen with the deceased and they became the prime suspects, due to which they were taken from jail for questioning. “So far, neither the police have given a clean chit to the two jail inmates brought on production warrant, nor does the role of the suspects has been established. Let the questioning finish, only then we can clear the air about their involvement behind the murder,” the ACP said.

DCP (Crime) Gagan Ajit along with some SIT members visited the jail. He reportedly remained inside for over two hours and interacted with the jail officials.

The DCP told Ludhiana Tribune that today he just started with the investigation. “I took information from the jail officials about the murder. SIT will question the suspected jail inmates if required and the case will soon be solved,” he said.

On April 10 night, a jail inmate was found dead under mysterious circumstances in the bathroom of Central Jail. The incident came to light when the jail staff was counting the jail inmates. They were shocked to know that Livtar Singh, an inmate, was missing. They started looking for him and finally noticed him lying dead in the bathroom. A string was also found tied around his neck. Initially, the police and jail officials suspected that the victim could have committed suicide, but later when the medical report found wounds on his body, they termed it a murder case. A murder case was registered against unidentified persons.

Jail officials had also done an exercise of questioning some of the suspected inmates, but they failed to reach any conclusion. Now, the task to solve the case has been handed over to a SIT headed DCP (Crime) Gagan Ajit Singh.