AAP nominee for ZP poll found murdered, party sees conspiracy

Perneet Singh

Tribune News Service

Bathinda, September 10

Harvinder Singh Hinda, 42, the AAP candidate for the Gill Kalan zila parishad elections, was allegedly  murdered by three unidentified men at his house in Bathinda’s Jethuke village late last night. 

Leader of the Opposition Harpal Singh Cheema called it a “meticulously planned murder perpetrated under a political conspiracy”. He demanded that the local body polls be cancelled. Hinda’s  papers, incidentally, were rejected today for not having submitted the original affidavit regarding a case.

Giving 36 hours to the police to nab the killers, Cheema said the cremation would take place only after that.   

Sources said the accused visited Hinda’s residence between 10 and 11 pm. They took him out to a liquor vend and returned late in the night. Hinda asked his wife to sleep upstairs, saying the visitors would be staying back. In the morning, she found him lying dead in his bed and the trio missing. 

Dr Nanak Singh, SSP, said there were injuries in the right eye, probably caused by a blunt weapon, and the back of the head. 

“We are focusing on establishing the identity of the accused whom Hinda knew but his wife didn’t. She says she can identify them,” the SSP said. 

Hinda’s family members and village residents began a dharna outside the Rampura Sadar police station in the evening, protesting the “delay” in tracing the killers. Addressing the protesters, Cheema accused the police of shielding the “real” culprits and destroying evidence, hinting that those who had visited Hinda may not be the murderers. The SSP rubbished all such charges. 

 Punjab AAP co-convener Dr Balbir Singh too called it a “gruesome political murder”. He promised all possible help to Hinda’s family, including legal. Legislators from both factions of AAP visited the grieving family.