Bullet in forehead kills Beant grandson, suicide suspected
Monday, 30/05/2016
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CHANDIGARH: Former Punjab chief minister Beant Singh’s grandson Harkirat Singh Kotli (40) was killed on Sunday morning at his Sector 5 house here by a bullet from his 0.30-mm revolver. His history of depression and prima-facie evidence suggest it to be a case of suicide, though the family claims the firearm went off while cleaning.
Harkirat was getting his treatment for depression from Chadigarh’s Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER), and police haven’t found any suicide note on his body. Harkirat’s wife and his gunman, Gurdev Singh, took him to the PGI, where he died at about 2pm. Police say he shot himself in the forehead around 10.45am in his room. “At 10.30am, he came back from morning walk, feeling low, told a servant to bring him juice, and asked his wife to prepare his bathwater. When she stepped into the bathroom to open the tap, she heard a gunshot behind her and got back to find her husband in a pool of blood. Since he was fighting depression and mood swings, the family never used to leave him unattended,” said a family source.
A PGI official said Harkirat had bullet injury in the middle of the forehead. “How he received it is not clear yet and we are trying to reach his parents,” said Sector 3 station house officer (SHO) Neeraj Sarna. Deputy superintendent of police (central) Satish Kumar confirmed that investigators were yet to record the family’s statement and that the body was in the PGI’s mortuary for autopsy on Monday.
The younger brother of Khanna legislator Gurkirat Singh and a cousin of Ludhiana MP Ravneet Singh Bittu, Harkirat belonged to a political family. He was sarpanch of his native village, Kotli, and had entered politics from the grassroots, just like his grandfather, who was assassinated in 1995. His father, Tej Parkash Singh, has been a former Punjab transport minister.
The news of his death brought people from the Congress and other parties to his house. Former CM Rajinder Kaur Bhattal and Aam Aadmi Party’s Punjab convener Sucha Singh Chhotepur were among the visitors.
