Akali ex-sarpanch shot dead, hacked

Ravi Dhaliwal
Tribune News Service
Dhilwan (Gurdaspur), Nov 19

A local Shiromani Akali Dal leader was shot dead and his legs chopped off on Monday evening following an altercation with his neighbour at Dhilwan village in Gurdaspur district, the police said on Tuesday.

Batala SSP Opinderjit Singh Ghuman ruled out any political motive behind the killing of Dalbir Singh Dhilwan, 51, who was the vice-president of the Gurdaspur unit of the SAD and also a two-time sarpanch.

Dalbir Singh and his neighbour, Balwinder Singh, had earlier entered into a verbal spat over the former’s servant forcibly entering the latter’s fields. A compromise was reached between them with the help of villagers on Monday, the SSP said.

But when Dalbir Singh was taking a walk on the outskirts of the village on Monday evening, Balwinder Singh and his two sons, Major Singh (25) and Mandeep Singh (24), waylaid him, according to the police.

One of them pumped six bullets into Dalbir Singh. Then Balwinder Singh chopped off the victim’s legs with a sharp-edged weapon, the police said. Dalbir Singh was taken to hospital, where he was declared brought dead. 

A case has been registered against the three accused and four unidentified persons under Section 302 (murder) and other relevant sections of the IPC, the SSP said. The accused are absconding and five teams have been formed to trace them, the police said.  

Meanwhile, an eerie silence prevailed throughout the day in the village with SAD leaders, including former Cabinet minister Bikram Majithia and Majha (youth wing) in charge Ravi Karan Kahlon, claiming the murder was the handiwork of Congress activists. The SSP, however, discounted this supposition. (Inputs from PTI)