Police crack Passey Road murder, 4 youths nabbed

Aman Sood

Patiala, January 31

The police today claimed to have solved the murder of a local resident whose body was found here in the wee hours of Sunday, with the arrest of four youths, all school dropouts. Sameer Kataria (37) was killed in a carjacking attempt on Passey Road on Sunday night.

The police arrested the main accused following an exchange of fire. His three accomplices were arrested earlier.

SSP Varun Sharma said two teams, headed by Shaminder Singh, in charge, CIA Patiala; and Harjinder Singh, SHO, Civil Lines, were chasing the main accused Abhishek. “Dinesh Kumar, Sahil Kumar and Yogesh Maurya were arrested earlier and they revealed the name of Abhishek, who tried to flee when confronted,” said the police.

“During the chase, the police party cornered him near Ucha Gaon village. Abhishek fired at the police. The CIA team fired at the accused, who was hit in the leg,” said the SSP. “We need to interrogate Abhishek, who, along with Dinesh Kumar, are the criminal minds behind this crime along with the other two associates,” he said.

“One .32-bore country-made pistol, along with three cartridges, was recovered from the accused. Further interrogation of the accused will be conducted after his release from the hospital,” said Shaminder Singh. “We had a few leads. Following CCTV footage and other leads in the case, we were able to track the movement of the accused and managed to arrest Dinesh on January 30, which helped us identify the other three accused involved in the crime,” he said.

Three persons had attacked Kataria in his car and stabbed him to death during the wee hours of Sunday, while the fourth assailant waited for them nearby, the police said. The police had recovered the victim’s vehicle, in which the suspects tried to flee, but had to abandon it after an accident.

The police said Kataria was on his way home with his friend Kishan when three motorcyclists attacked them when they stopped the vehicle on Passey Road.

“The men had attacked Sameer with sharp weapons and also fired gunshots into the air even as Kishan escaped. The suspects left Sameer in a pool of blood and tried to flee with the vehicle. However, they met with an accident 150 metres away and left the vehicle there,” said the police.

The SSP said Abhishek had also snatched a car from Ludhiana on the same day in which he, along with his aides, had abducted a woman, who was travelling in that car. “A case has already been registered in that case in Ludhiana,” said the SSP.