Ludhiana murder: Police probe hints at contract killing

Nikhil Bhardwaj

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, July 21

The city police have identified the assailants who murdered BJP worker Rinkal Khera here on Thursday, it is learnt, even as the ongoing investigation has hinted at a contract killing. Congress councillor Gurdeep Singh Neetu’s son Jatinderpal Singh Sunny and others have already been booked on the charge of murder. Raids are being conducted to nab the accused.

Sources in the police said the assailants were already facing several criminal cases. Sunny’s phone call details are being scanned to check whether he was in touch with them.

“Six assailants, including two turbaned ones, had stayed in a hotel on the Brown road in the old city area. They reportedly arrived at the hotel a day before the murder. They did a recce of Rinkal’s residence in Amarpura at night. The next day, they barged into his house and hit him on the head, face and legs with sharp-edged weapons,” the sources said.

The police have recovered the hotel CCTV footage in which six youths are seen. They are said to be from Doaba.

When asked whether the crime was a contract killing, Police Commissioner Sukhchain Singh Gill said, “Let the police first arrest the accused. Their disclosures will make things clear.”