DNA report confirms body sent to UK not of NRI
Sunday, 27/03/2016
http://paper.hindustantimes.com/epaper/viewer.aspx
JALANDHAR: The DNA sample of the mother of UK-based millionaire hotelier Ranjit Singh Power ( 54) didn’t match with that of the body sent to the UK by the police. Power was allegedly murdered in Punjab by his NRI friend Baldev Singh Deol and latter’s nephew Sukhdev Singh. Sukhdev is in jail, while Deol is in the UK.
The local police received the DNA report on Friday. The negative DNA profile is bound to weaken the case against Deol and may jeopardise efforts to bring him back to face trial.
The police had preserved the DNA of the body before it was sent to Britain and both the samples—that of the body and Ranjit’s mother—were profiled at the forensic lab in Chandigarh.
A senior official said the report would be produced in the court on March 31. The UK authorities had made it clear earlier this month that it won’t repatriate the body to India and funeral would be conducted by the social services. The DNA will be preserved though for probe, the authorities had said.
Police commissioner Yurinder Singh Hayer, however, said it was wrong to say that DNA report would affect the probe. “We have sufficient circumstantial and technical evidence against the accused. A meeting will be held on Monday to decide the next course of action,” he told HT.
On May 18 last year, Ranjit’s younger brother Amrik had told the police that his brother had come to Punjab for a business deal with Deol. On Amrik’s complaint, Deol was booked under Section 365 (abduction) of IPC.
The call details of Deol led the special investigation team to his distant nephew, Sukhdev Singh of Manikpur village near Shahkot and it came to light that they had plotted to kill Ranjit.
As per the police, on May 8, the accused duo picked Ranjit from Amritsar airport, visited the Golden Temple and strangulated him on way to Anandpur Sahib. Later, the body was thrown into the Bhakra canal, the police said.
On June 1 last year, police fished out a partially decomposed body from a canal in Ambala and Ranjit’s NRI friend Darshan Singh had identified it from a bracelet on one of the wrists.
