DHARAMKOT (Moga), Nov 14 — The killing of senior Congress leader Harmesh Kumar Mukhija here yesterday has left a question mark on the role of the Punjab police.

Relatives and political supporters of the deceased accuse the police of not only shielding the accused under political pressure, but also overlooking the threat perception on Mukhija’s life.

The relatives of the deceased allege that the police did not provide any security cover to the deceased, despite a threat to his life from the ruling Akali Dal legislator, Mr Sheetal Singh, and his “henchmen”. Besides, the police reached almost one-and-a-half hours after the incident occurred.

Mr Des Raj, brother of the deceased, alleged that the security cover earlier provided to Mukhija during militancy was withdrawn at the behest of the legislator and all pleas to redeploy the gunmen by the family fell on deaf ears. “Had he been provided the necessary security cover, he would not have died in this manner”, he lamented.

Mr Des Raj, on whose complaint a case of murder has been registered against Mr Sheetal Singh and his supporter Gurbux Singh Kukku also charged the police with rounding up three licenced weapons of the Mukhija family only a few months ago. Their two 0.12 bore guns and a 315 bore rifle were confiscated after Mr Sheetal Singh’s supporters got a case of attempt to murder registered against Mukhija.

Even when Mr Sheetal Singh was booked for the murder of Mukhija’s son last month, the police did not arrest him. Mukhija had charged the MLA of crushing his only son Rakesh Kumar to death under a Tata Sumo. The police tried to quash the case, saying that it was motivated.

Although Mukhija had petitioned before the court for security cover in view of threat from Mr Sheetal Singh, the police did not provide him the gunmen. Mr Des Raj claimed that his brother frequently received threat calls and later engaged a private body guard, who too was injured in yesterday’s attack.