British citizen held, is brother-in-law of elderly couple’s son

LUDHIANA: Two days after the murder of an elderly couple in a posh locality here, police on Friday arrested a British citizen in the case, who is the brotherin-law of the victims’ son and came to the city from London to murder the duo as he was nursing a grudge against them.

Sukhdev Singh, 65, and his wife Gurmeet Kaur, 62, were found murdered in their house in Bhai Randhir Singh Nagar on Wednesday night.

Police commissioner Kaustubh Sharma said accused Charanjit Singh, 36, was arrested near Jasdev Nagar after the relatives of the slain couple identified him in the CCTV footages. The weapon used in the crime and the car in which he came to commit the crime is yet to be recovered. Charanjit, a science graduate from Guildhall London University, told police that Sukhdev and Gurmeet used to ill-treat his sister Sanpreet Kaur, who is settled in Edinburgh in the UK with her husband Jagmohan Singh. The accused assumed that the elderly couple would harass his sister again as they were scheduled to leave for Edinburgh to be with their son in seven days.

Born and brought up in the UK, Charanjit had come to Ludhiana in January.

He had planned to return to London in June, but he had advanced his journey and booked a ticket for May 16, police said. Police commissioner Sharma said that the accused was hatching a conspiracy to murder the couple for a long time and had bought a knife for the purpose.

Sharma said that on Wednesday, he came to couple’s house at 2 PM and then 4 PM. He did not see Sukhdev’s car parked in the house. and assumed that Sukhdev was not present at home and returned.

The accused returned at 8.30 PM. He parked his car at a distance and rang the doorbell. Sukhdev , who was talking to his daughter Rupinder on phone, took Charanjit Singh inside. Charanjit started accusing the couple for mistreating his sister following which they indulged in a spat. The accused assaulted the couple who resisted and attacked the accused in self-defense. The accused also suffered injury during the attack.

While escaping, Charanjit failed to open the lock of the main gate, following which he scaled the compound wall and fled. The neighbours saw Charanjit fastening a backpack on his shoulders. They tried to nab him but he managed to escape, Sharma said.