‘Serial killer’ held, police say seven murders cracked

JAGROOP, AN AUTO DRIVER, IS ACCUSED OF KILLING HUSBANDS OF TWO PARAMOURS IN 2004 AND 2011; COPS SAY HE HAS CONFESSED

Police on Friday arrested an alleged serial killer who they said confessed to have committed seven murders in the past 22 years.

The accused has been identified as Jagroop Singh (47) of the Basti Badlowal area in Ludhiana district.

Jagroop, an auto-rickshaw driver, is accused of killing husbands of his two paramours in 2004 and 2011. He claimed to have committed first murder in 1995. No case has been solved since.

The matter came to light when the police were investigating a blind murder in which Rajinder Singh (43) was found murdered in the Model Town area of Patiala on December 30.

Deputy inspector general of police (DIG, Patiala range) Sukhchain Singh Gill said a police team working on Rajinder’s murder zeroed in on Jagroop on the basis of clues collected from the scene of crime.

Gill said Rajinder was murdered after Jagroop suspected him of having illicit relationship with his alleged lover Hema (43) who has also been named in the case. She has not been arrested.

“Jagroop and Rajinder were known to each other and shared a drink on the day of crime. Jagroop laced Rajinder’s drink with sedatives before killing him with sharp-edged weapons and a brick on December 30 night,” Gill said.

The police said Jagroop returned to Ludhiana after committing the crime but he was seen in footage of a CCTV camera installed near the crime spot following which he was arrested.

TRAIL OF MURDERS SINCE 1995

The DIG said the accused confessed to have first murdered a woman with his friends while committing a robbery in Shimlapuri area of Ludhiana in 1995. He killing a migrant woman in the Badowal area of the city in 1998.

The police said Jagroop in 2004, he developed alleged illicit relations with a Haryana-based woman Paramjeet Kaur and killed her husband Kuldeep Singh. “After strangulating Kuldeep, he stacked the body in a trunk and threw it in the Yamuna,” the police said.

In 2011, Jagroop developed illicit relationship with Hema of Ludhiana, who now lives in Patiala. “Jagroop and Hema murdered her husband Nand Lal at Ludhiana’s Kakowal village and dumped his mutilated body in a vacant plot,” the police said.

In 2015, Jagroop in connivance with Paramjeet killed Patiala’s Anil Kumar and stacked his body in a briefcase before dumping it at Vikas Nagar, the police said.

In 2016, Paramjeet came to know about Jagroop’s illicit relationship with Hema after which the two eliminated Paramjeet in Ludhiana’s Dehlon locality, the police said.

A case was registered against Jagroop and Hema under Sections 302 (murder) and 201 (destruction of evidence) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).