Abohar bizman murder: Five months on, cops yet to nab 8 accused

Five months after the broad daylight murder of a leading businessman Sanjay Verma (58), co-owner of a men’s tailoring showroom New Wear Well Emporium here, the police are yet to arrest eight of the total 19 accused, including the three assailants, who came on a motorcycle and shot Sanjay dead when he had just arrived outside the showroom in his car on July 7 morning.

The police have formed a four-member special investigation team (SIT), provided security cover to the family, and claim to have significant inputs about the remaining accused.

Notably, a day after the murder, which had rocked Punjab and some neighbouring states, two suspects – Ram Rattan of Patiala and Jaspreet Singh of Mardanpur village in Patiala – were shot dead by the police in an act of self-defence near Panjpir Tibba here.

Soon after the murder, a Facebook post, allegedly by gangster Lawrence Bishnoi’s aide Naveen Kumar, aka Aarzoo Bishnoi, along with Goldy Dhillon and Shubham Lonkar from Maharashtra, claimed the responsibility for the killing, stating, “We had called him regarding a matter, but he refused to recognise us. We shot him dead to make it clear who we are. He used to support our enemies.”

Those booked in the case include gangster Lawrence Bishnoi, his aide Aarzoo Bishnoi, Shakti Kumar, Ram Rattan, Jaspreet Singh, Jagroop Singh, Inderpal Bishnoi, Sandeep Khichad, Pawan Khichad, Jaskaran Singh, Rajinder Singh, Gurpreet Singh, Kartik Jakhar, Pranjal Sharma, Anshuman Tiwari, Vishnu Khudala, Pravin Rameshwar, Shubham Lonkar and Amol Ashok Gaekwad.

DSP Sukhwinder Singh said, “We have significant inputs about the remaining accused. Our teams are working on it.”

The victim’s family, however, refused to comment on it.