5 killed as armed men attack family in Faridabad village

FARIDABAD: In a brazen display of lawlessness, a group of armed men, led by the husband, Billu, 50, of Palwali village sarpanch, Dayawati, attacked a family in the village on Sunday late night. The village is around 8 km from Faridabad city. Members of the mob, estimated to be 30-strong, was armed with pistols, lathis and swords attacked Rajinder Kumar and his son Lalit.

The police are claiming that a dispute over parking led to the murderous assault, but sources claim that the sarpanch’s family and the family who head, Rajinder, was killed, had a simmering rivalry for long.

Rajinder’s son, Lalit, an advocate is critical. The other four who died in the indiscriminate firing are Srichand, Rajinder, Ishwer, Naveen and Pintu of the same village.

They are not from the same family, but are related. The injured, which include two women, have been identified as Kanya, Lalit, Nitesh, Rekha and Parmali. Billu, the alleged ringleader of the mob, has been

detained at a hospital where he is receiving treatment for injuries, sources add, adding that sarpanch Dayawati had also been detained.

VILLAGERS SHOCKED

“On Sunday night at 9.30pm, I rushed out of my house after hearing gunshots. I was told Rajinder was inside his house when Billu and his men entered the house and dragged him outside to the lane where bullets were pumped on his body,” said Puran Chand, the next-door neighbour of Rajinder, the target of the mob.

Commissioner of Police Hanif Qureshi also rushed to the village soon after the incident and supervised the initial investigation. He formed a Special Investigation Team (SIT), early on Monday to investigate the case.

A FIR was registered in Kheripul police station against 25 named accused under Sections 148 (rioting, armed with deadly weapon), 149 (unlawful assembly guilty of common under common intention), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 302 (murder), 307 (attempt to murder), 452 (trespass) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the IPC and Sections 25-54-59 of the Arms Act.

The FIR has 27 people booked by name and some unnamed people at the Kheri Pul station on Monday, Pramod, son of Nand Kishore, has been mentioned as one of the attackers.