M A I N   N E W S

NRI’s murder cuts short celebrations
Varinder Singh
Tribune News Service

Dera Sajda (Sultanpur Lodhi), November 5
Barely 10 days after his acquittal in a murder case by a Toronto court, the family members of a 36-year-old NRI, Salwinder Singh Dhillon, hailing from this village, got the news that he had been shot dead by two assailants.

Dhillon, a graduate of Kapurthala’s Government College, had left for Canada in 1989 and settled in Toronto. He was arrested by the police in the murder case of Gurdial Singh Sandhu, president of a gurdwara in Toronto who hailed from Muchhal village in Amritsar district, following which he spent 11 years in jail.

He was released on bail in September last year by a Toronto court. Since then, he was earning his livelihood by working in a factory. He was finally acquitted by the court on October 24. However, he was shot dead by two car-borne assailants while he was boarding a van along with other workers on the night of November 3.

As his friends informed his mother and two brothers about the incident, a pall of gloom descended on his village, on the outskirts of the Sultanpur Lodhi township. His house was thronged by hundreds of relatives from nearby villages.

“Salwinder was a religious person and had planned to organise a ‘path’ of Sri Guru Granth Sahib from November 4 at his Toronto house,” said a sobbing Attar Singh, the elder brother of Salwinder Singh and the Sarpanch of the village.

Pargat Singh, another brother of Salwinder, said the family had celebrated his acquittal on Divali day in a big way.

Apprehending that there was a possibility that Salwinder had become a victim of vendetta at the hands of family members of Gurdial Singh Sandhu, Attar Singh said. Sandhu’s son had stopped Salwinder and his friends on October 24 while they were coming out of the court after the judgement. Sandhu’s son had done no harm to his brother on that day but had noted down registration numbers of his vehicle and that of his friends, Attar Singh said.

Salwinder’s wailing mother, however, could not speak even as elderly women kept trying to pacify her.

Attar Singh said the victim’s body was likely to arrive here on Friday or Saturday.