Pehowa, April 1
As the daughter and relatives of the late Mam Chand Singla today disputed the official claim that the entire family of the affluent Pehowa trader had committed suicide due to debt, the state government has agreed to hand over the case to the CBI.

Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda met the relatives at the PWD rest house and promised a fair investigation into the case.

He informed TNS that two police officials, Jai Singh and Mahinder Singh, SHO and chowki in charge of Pehowa, had been suspended.

The bodies of all nine family members were consigned to the flames here at about 7.15 pm after postmortem was conducted at the PGI, Rohtak.

Dr S.K. Dhattarwal (forensic medicine) of the PGI said it might take two weeks to ascertain the exact cause of the deaths. He is scheduled to visit the scene of the crime for further examination.

Earlier in the evening, the agitated relatives blocked traffic for more than an hour at Pehowa Chowk.

Meanwhile, dismissing the theory of “mass suicide”, the relatives have raised suspicion over the role of a former business partner of Singla and two “munims”, who are “missing” for the past couple of days.

Alleging foul play in the entire episode, in which nine members of the family allegedly ended their lives in the Bhakra Canal, the agitated relatives have accused the police of trying to hush up the case.

Talking to TNS, Ram Avtar, a relative of the victims from Sangrur, said besides a flourishing rice business, the deceased had significantly invested in real estate in different parts of the state.

“Even if owed money to someone, it was no big matter for a flourishing businessman like Singla,” he added.

The relatives alleged that the business partner of the Singla family, whose name also figured in the list of “defaulters” who allegedly owed money to Singla, was allegedly missing with his entire family for the past two days.

Similarly, two “munims” who were employed with Singla were also not reporting to their office.

“We are crying foul since March 16 but the officials concerned have simply not given us a patient hearing. They are adamant on their version that the entire family had run away with money,” they said.

Interestingly, no serious efforts were made by the police to trace the bodies of the family members who had disappeared leaving behind a “suicide note”.

Sources in the forensic science laboratory, Madhuban, confirmed that they were called by the police yesterday after seven bodies stuck in a car were found from the Bhakra Canal, near Raogarh village.

Even after two weeks of their disappearance, no effort was made to match the handwriting of the deceased with that of the suicide note and names scribbled on a wall of the room, rued the relatives.