Punjab police arrest five in NRI firing case; Claim US-based family hired killers

Five individuals, including the father of the victim’s ex-wife, have been arrested in connection with the case. The crime was motivated by strained relations between the two NRI families. The injured NRI is reported to be out of danger.

Amritsar: In a crucial revelation by Punjab Police on Sunday into the firing incident in which a visiting Non-Resident Indian (NRI) from the US was critically wounded at his palatial farmhouse on the outskirts of Amritsar, the plot of getting him killed in revenge was hatched by the victim’s ex-wife’s family, also based in America, by hiring local miscreants.

Five people, comprising the father of the victim’s ex-wife, have been arrested. The motive of the crime was strained relations between both NRI families. The grievously wounded NRI was stated to be out of danger.

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Commissioner of Police Ranjit Singh Dhillon told the media here that four members of a family, belonging to the victim’s previous wife’s family, settled in the US allegedly hired the killers by offering them a ‘supari’ to kill the visiting NRI, Sukhchain Singh.

“It’s a dispute between two families, both settled in America. Owing to revenge, one family hired assailants by giving them ‘suprai’ and sent them to the other’s house. We are very close to arresting them (assailants). The case has been solved. It is a matter of time that both assailants will be arrested. They arranged funds (from outside the country) to commit the crime,” he said.

“The NRI family knew that this man is currently here (in India). We have arrested five people,” he said.

Besides the victim’s previous father-in-law, who is based in Punjab’s Hoshiarpur district, the police also arrested a manager of the hotel located in Amritsar for giving lodging to the assailants before and after the crime.

The police also traced the trail of money transferred after the crime. “Other people linked to the crime would be soon arrested,” Dhillon added.

Two motorcycle-borne assailants barged into the house of 43-year-old NRI, Sukhchain Singh, in Daburji village and shot at him on Saturday morning in front of his elderly mother, wife and two children from his previous wife, leaving him grievously wounded.

One bullet pierced into his head bypassing the brain and the other hit his arm. According to the police, one of the attackers’ weapons jammed and could not fire more.

Sukhchain Singh, a US resident who came here 25 days back, was shot in the head and arm by the two assailants in front of his family, including children, who could be seen in CCTV footage pleading not to harm their father with folded hands. He was immediately rushed to a private hospital in Amritsar with critical bullet injuries.

In the CCTV footage, the miscreants, who came on a motorcycle and did not wear masks, are seen entering the house in the morning. Singh’s children were playing inside the house at the time. One of the armed assailants is seen approaching the NRI and asking him to enter a bedroom at gunpoint. As he resisted, both assailants fired at him from close range.