53-yr-old murdered in Fazilka, 4 booked

FAZILKA: A man was shot dead by unidentified assailants on the outskirts of Balluana village in Abohar subdivision of the district, 35km from here, on Thursday morning.

The assailants opened fire at the victim, identified as Balkaran Singh, 53, when he was having morning walk with on eof his workers in his fields at Dhani Thakur Singh near Balluana.

Balkaran was once settled in Canada and a non-resident Indian (NRI).

Police said the victim suffered a bullet injury from a .12 bore gun in his head and two injuries from .315 bore gun in other parts of the body. The worker accompanying him ran ran away to save his life.

4 BOOKED ON KIN’S COMPLAINT

On the statement of Baljit Singh, the victim’s brother, a case has been registered against Samarbir Singh, his brother Kulbir Singh, father-in-law Gurtej Singh and brother-inlaw Gurteshwar Singh and five unknown persons, who are yet to be arrested.

The accused, who reportedly came in two vehicles, have been under Section 302 (murder) of the Indian Penal Code and the Arms Act.

The assailants also took victim’s .32 bore pistol before fleeing the spot.

Abohar superintendent of police (SP) Amarjit Singh said the victim had a property dispute with the accused family for the past several years.

“The victim’s family has reported that a lower court had decided the property dispute case in Balkaran’s favour in September. His family lives in Canada and he also used to live there but it is yet to be verified if he was a citizen of Canada or not,” he said.

The victim was provided two security guards by the police but they were not accompanying him at the time of the attack as he had reportedly asked them to take rest.

He also had some private security guards, but they were also sent by him to their homes due to Diwali, sources said.