Mohali: A Fatehgarh Sahib man here on Tuesday has been awarded death sentenced for killing four members of a family by pushing them into the Sirhind canal in 2004. He is already on a death row for murdering his wife’s six relatives in 2012.
A Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court convicted Khushwinder Singh, 45, of Suhavi village in Fatehgarh Sahib on 25 August, under Sections 302 (murder), 364 (kidnapping or abducting in order to murder) and 201 (causing disappearance of evidence of offence) of the Indian Penal Code.
The court today pronounced the quantum of sentence.
On June 4, 2004, Kulwant, 40, his wife Harjit Kaur, 38, their daughter Ramandeep Kaur, 15 and son Avrinder Singh, 14, had disappeared under mysterious circumstances from their house at Sanghol town in Fatehgarh Sahib.
Kulwant used to run a rice mill and also worked as a commission agent. He had sold his land and was to visit a gurdwara at Paonta Sahib in Sirmaur, Himachal Pradesh. But his car was recovered from the outskirts of Suhavi village near the house of accused Khushwinder, whose elder brother Kulwinder Singh worked as an accountant for Kulwant.
Later, police had recovered Kulwant’s shoes from the canal. Eventually, the bodies of Kulwant and his daughter were recovered, but his wife and son could not be traced.
As the cops remained clueless, the Punjab and Haryana high court in 2007 handed over the probe to the CBI on the petition of the deceased’s brother Kultar Singh.
It was in July 2012 when Khushwinder was arrested for the murder of his wife’s six relatives that he confessed to have murdered Kulwant and his family members, following which the CBI reopened the case.
Had drowned wife’s six relatives in 2012
A Fatehgarh Sahib court on March 16, 2013, had awarded the death sentence to Khushwinder Singh for killing his wife’s six relatives by pushing them into the Bhakra Canal in Ludhiana district in June 2012.
Khushwinder had taken the family to the canal near Mukandpur village in Ludhiana on the pretext of performing a religious ceremony.
The victims were his wife’s uncle Gurmail Singh, 70, a retired Punjab Police head constable, his wife Paramjit Kaur, 60, their son Gurinder Singh, 30, their daughter’s husband Rupinder Singh, Rupinder’s son Jaskirat Singh and daughter Prabhsimran Kaur.
Khushwinder was arrested in July 2012 after Gurmail’s daughter Jasmine Kaur managed to swim out and reported the matter to Bassi Pathana police.