UK hotelier was murdered, but body still to be traced
Sunday, 31/05/2015
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JALANDHAR: After 12 days of groping in the dark, the commissionerate police have confirmed that UK-based NRI hotelier Ranjit Singh Power (55) was murdered and his body thrown into the Bhakra canal allegedly by his friend-cum-business partner and the latter’s nephew.
On May 18, hotelier’s brother Amrik Power had complained to the police that Ranjit had gone to Punjab for a business deal with his friend Baldev Singh Deol, a resident of Shekhewal village, who is also a UK citizen.
He complained that Ranjit was to return to Wolverhampton in the UK on May 14, but didn’t turn up whereas surprisingly Deol returned to Wolverhampton on May 15. On his complaint, a case was registered against Deol under Section 365 of the IPC.
A special investigation team (SIT) was formed that scanned call records of Deol who had arrived in India on February 13 and the investigation led the team to Deol’s distant nephew Sukhdev Singh, a resident of Manikpur village near Shahkot.
Deputy commissioner of police (DCP) Rajinder Singh said Deol and Power were friends for the past 25 years and both ran property businesses in the UK and Jalandhar.
The DCP said the exact reason behind the murder would be made clear by Deol. He said they had sounded the UK embassy about the development and Deol’s extradition to India. The police found that Deol had also taken alleged possession of two flats and a house belonging to the hotelier at the local Ravinder Nagar, the DCP said.
He said they had scanned the CCTV footage of the toll tax plaza near Anandpur Sahib on May 8 night in which the car used for the crime was found and also recovered a toll tax receipt of Rs 80 from the car.
The DCP said they had added Sections 302 (murder), 201 (causing disappearance of evidence of offence, or giving false information to screen offender) and 34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention) of the IPC to the case against Deol and Sukhdev.
He said they had also recovered the vehicle used in the crime and a special team was looking for the body in the canal.
WHAT DROVE SUKHDEV TO COMMIT CRIME
According to the police, a debt of Rs 20 lakh and the ambition to become a UK resident forced Sukhdev Singh (32) to commit the crime along with uncle Baldev Singh Deol, who fled to the UK six days after the murder.
Sukhdev runs a taxi business at Shahkot and has three cars on loan in his name. His business was running in losses and he could not repay the loan.
Deol, who landed in India on February 13, hatched a conspiracy with Sukhdev a week before the arrival of the hotelier in Amritsar on May 8.
On May 8, he, along with Sukhdev, reached the Amritsar airport in an Innova (PB08CP-0593) at 3.30pm and took the hotelier to the Golden Temple for paying obeisance.
They bought liquor and started from Amritsar at 6pm and reached Nakkia village near Anandpur Sahib around 11pm. During the journey, they made the hotelier drink in excess following which he became unconscious.
Then they covered his face with a polythene bag and strangulated him with a rope. Then they threw the ‘naked’ body and his clothes into the Bhakra canal and returned to the Ravinder Nagar flat to “celebrate”.
FAMILY RAN CAMPAIGN ON FACEBOOK
The hotelier’s family, including son Gian Power and daughter Emma, ran a campaign ‘Help find Ranjit Singh Power’ on social websites Facebook and Twitter.
They had also posted his pictures and announced a reward of 25,000 UK pounds for anyone giving information about Power.
