Army man among five arrested for murder

Tribune: Haryana: Saturday, 18 July 2020.

An Army man of the district’s Mandhar village and his brother, who is the village sarpanch, are among five men arrested in connection with the murder of 45-year-old Gurvinder Singh on June 30. The Army man was identified as Anil Kumar of the Sikh Regiment. He was posted in Farrukhabad of Uttar Pradesh.

SP Kamaldeep Goyal said Kumar admitted to having killed Gurvinder because he held a grudge against him on two counts: one, he had had complained to his seniors alleging that Kumar got a job in the Army on the basis of a fake caste certificate; two, Gurvinder constantly harassed his brother Ranbir Singh by seeking information under the RTI Act about development works undertaken by the panchayat.

Besides Anil Kumar and his brother, the police have arrested their-brother-in law Bhupinder of Sonepat’s Shahpur Taga village, their cousin Manga and Lakhvinder Singh of Mandhar village.

On June 30, Gurvinder was shot dead by three motorcycle-borne persons in Mandhar village. On the complaint of the deceased’s brother-in-law, a case was registered against three unidentified persons under Sections 302 (murder) and 120-B (hatching a criminal conspiracy) of the IPC and the Arms Act at the Chhappar police station on July 1.

The SP said, “Kumar came home on June 17 on a 45-day leave. He brought a country-made pistol, a country-made revolver, a ‘katta’ and 38 cartridges with him from Farrukhabad.”

The five accused were produced in a Jagadhri court, which sent them to a four-day police remand.

Enmity over highlighting ‘irregularities’

Soldier's brother is a village sarpanch. Victim Gurvinder Singh is said to have complained to the Army that accused Anil Kumar had obtained a fake certificate to get himself recruited. He is also said to have filed RTI querry seeking details of the development works undertaken by Mandhar panchayat, led by Army man's sarpanch brother.