Karnal, June 7
The ‘mysterious’ murder of one Karam Singh, in his late fifties, on Tuesday morning threatened to snowball into a major controversy and implicate Haryana’s transport minister Om Prakash Jain and Chief Parliamentary Secretary Zile Ram Sharma. Thousands of villagers demonstrated here today demanding their arrest and forced the police to accept a written complaint by the deceased’s son.
Karam Singh, a former Sarpanch, it was claimed, had sent a written complaint yesterday against the duo to the Chief Minister, the Karnal SP and the Deputy Commissioner of Panipat, where the minister resides, alleging that they had taken Rs. 12.45 lakh from him for providing employment in the government to three people. But even when they had failed to provide the promised employment, the letter alleged, they were refusing to return the amount. The letter, it was claimed, is what provoked the CPS’s men to kill him this morning.
His son Rajinder claimed that Karam Singh had set out from his house at 7.30 am for the CPS’s residence. Around 8 am he had called up to say that he was going to the PWD Rest House with the CPS’s driver and two more people. Half an hour later, however, an unknown person called up to say that Karam Singh was ‘serious’ and was lying near the Karnal cemetery.
He also claimed that the deceased was found with his clothes torn and frothing. He was, however, conscious
and told Rajinder that he was beaten up in the vehicle and was also forced to drink something poisonous. He also alleged that the CPS’s
men had stabbed his abdomen with a syringe a number of times. He also allegedly confided about the letter he had written and informed that a copy was in the portfolio he was carrying.
The CPC, Zile Ram Sharma, when contacted, expressed surprise and said that he was actually in Rajasthan and had heard about the incident from the media. The transport minister also denied the allegation and claimed that he was not even acquainted with the deceased. “ I have nothing to do with the former Sarpanch”, said Jain and added that he would quit politics if his involvement is proved. Both of them claimed that unscrupulous middlemen seem to have duped Karam Singh.
