A tragic tale of fury that escalated quickly unfolded when a 35-year-old non-resident Indian (NRI), landed in Punjab from Jordan on the night of August 1. He went on to set himself, his wife and two minor children ablaze at Alamgir village on August 2, leaving all four of them dead.
A report in the Hindustan Times read that police had informed that Kulwinder Singh committed the crime at around 4 am after he allegedly came to know about an illicit relationship of his wife Mandeep Kaur, aged 30, with a villager.
Kulwinder and his five-year-old son Abhi, died on the spot while his eight-year-old daughter Sonal, succumbed to her injuries in Kapurthala civil hospital. His 30-year-old wife was transferred to the Jalandhar civil hospital where she died after giving out a statement to the police.
Police informed that Mandeep told them that “a villager had started blackmailing me for sexual favours after he had filmed my obscene video, which he had also shared with two of his friends.”
“When I talked to my husband about this, he got furious. Later, when we were sleeping he poured kerosene on us and set us on fire,” she told the police.
After hearing the screams of the victims, Kulwinder’s sister Jaswinder Kaur, who was sleeping in the adjoining room, came to know what had happened and raised an alarm. “She also sustained minor burn injuries and was discharged after the first aid,” said MS Bawa, medical superintendent, Jalandhar civil hospital.
“Kulwinder had been living in Jordan for some years and returned to his village on Wednesday night”, asserted Superintendent of police (SP) Jagjit Singh Saroya.
“He came to know about his wife’s affair when she told him that a man was threatening to post her obscene video on social media and demanding sexual favours,” the SP said.
Deputy superintendent of police (DSP) Sarabjit Singh reported that on the basis of the woman’s statement, a case has been registered against four persons belonging to the same village under Sections 306 (abetment of suicide) and 34 of IPC.
The accused who filmed the video have been identified as Gurpreet Singh alias Sunny, his mother Satya Devi, two friends Balkar Singh and Tirath Singh.
The DSP also added that Sunny and Balkar have been arrested while efforts are on to arrest the other two accused.
He said, “Gurpreet had reportedly made the obscene video of the woman that he shared with his friends, and they later started blackmailing her. Satya also blackmailed the woman to extort money from her.”
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