Police book five persons in Gumtala murder case

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, February 25

A day after the family members of Gurmej Singh, a resident of Gumtala, who died under mysterious circumstances here on Sunday, staged a protest outside the Gumtala police chowki, the police have booked five persons for his murder.

Those booked have been identified as Tarsem Singh, Bobby, Prince, Sabha and Mandeep Singh Noni. They were charged with murder. The case was registered on the statement of the victim’s wife Bholi. The residents also produced CCTV footage in which two persons were seen dumping Gurmej’s body near the house.

The family members said Gurmej was stabbed with some pointed weapon over a dispute of Rs 10 for consuming liquor.

Initially, the police initiated action under Section 174 of the CrPC and said appropriate action would be taken after procuring the post-mortem report. When the police handed over the body to the family members after a postmortem on Monday, they kept the body outside the Gumtala police chowki falling under the Cantonment police station alleging police inaction.

They said the accused were allegedly part of illicit liquor mafia in the area and enjoyed a good political influence. Therefore, the police were delaying action against the accused. However, the police refuted the allegations and said the matter was under investigation.

Harinder Singh, brother of the victim, said Gurmej Singh used to buy and consume liquor from the accused involved in selling illicit liquor in the area. He said for some days he had a dispute with them. He alleged on Saturday the accused brutally thrashed him. He did not return home and on Monday they found his body near the house. The body had marks of thrashing.