Firing at couple: Financier’s arms licence to be cancelled for misuse

After the Ludhiana rural police on Saturday arrested a suspect who shot a couple running a grocery shop in Prem Nagar, Mullanpur Dakha, Jagraon, they also recovered a pistol, six cartridges and two bullet shells from the man.

Now, the police are going to cancel the arms licence of the suspect, who is a financier, for misusing the licensed weapon. The suspect was identified as Surinder Singh, alias Chhinda, a resident of Hissowal village.

Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP), Ludhiana (rural), Navneet Singh Bains, Dakha DSP Varinder Singh Khosa and SHO, Dakha, sub-inspector Gurvinder Singh, addressed a press conference in this regard at Jagraon on Sunday.

Bains said Surinder was having a monetary dispute with the couple. He had lent Rs 1 lakh to the couple.

Late on Friday night, the suspect, who was under the influence of liquor, reached their shop and got into a fight with the victims. Afterwards, the man got angry and opened fire at the couple and fled the scene on his bike. The Dakha police had registered a case on the statement of Raj Kumar.

Raj Kumar and his wife, who run a grocery shop at Prem Nagar in Mullanpur, were shot at. The injured couple were taken to the Civil Hospital, Jagraon, from where they were referred to a Ludhiana hospital. They were stated to be out of danger.

Meanwhile, Raj Kumar told the police in his statement that the suspect, who was in an inebriated state, had been abusing his wife. When he asked him to stop abusing her, the man left the place. After sometime, he returned and again started abusing the woman. Following which, the suspect took out a pistol and fired shots at them. The bullet hit the man’s shoulder due to which he fell down. The woman also got a bullet injury.

Meanwhile, the Dakha DSP said the suspect had obtained arms licence in 2013 and he had bought a .22 bore revolver. “The financier, during his preliminary interrogation, admitted that when he asked woman to return his money, she and her husband insulted him and also abused him due to which he lost his temper and opened fire from his licensed weapon,” he said.

The DSP said as per the complainant, the suspect was drunk but investigation was on in the matter.