Ex-sarpanch used animal sedative to kill wife, daughter

Singh, a former sarpanch of Mudh village near Nakodar, who was arrested for allegedly murdering his sixmonth-pregnant wife and a stepdaughter, injected high dose of a sedative meant to calm dairy animals into his victims to kill them, police said on Tuesday.

Deputy superintendent of police (DSP) Mukesh Kumar told HT that Onkar was familiar with the drug as he was in the dairy business in the past; and “easily” got the injection of xylazine hydrochloride on Sunday evening. Onkar (36), a Congress leader, allegedly told the interro- gators that he first gave the injection to his wife on some pretext. He then targeted the stepdaughter because she had seen him administering the injection to Amandeep, the DSP said, adding that doctors found injection marks on the bodies during postmortem examination.

He was, meanwhile, sent in two-day police remand by a local court on Tuesday. Viscera samples would be sent to the state lab at Kharar in Mohali for chemical examination, said the DSP. The bodies were handed over to the family after post-mortem.

‘DID NOT WANT CHILD’

Onkar remarried in 2013 after divorcing his first wife. He was arrested after his second wife, Moga native Amandeep Kaur (27), and stepdaughter Jasmine Kaur (7) were found dead on Monday morning. The crime came to light after he called his father-inlaw to tell him that he “could not get the two of them to wake up”, and the latter called the cops after doctors declared them dead at the house. Amandeep’s father Swaran Singh (57) said Onkar used to beat her, and a complaint was made before the panchayat that got them to compromise. He alleged Onkar did not want a child and had attempted to get her to abort.

Onkar was village sarpanch from 2008 to 2013. The rest of the family is settled abroad.