The Mohali police suspect that Seerat, the young wife of 40-year-old businessman Ekam Singh Dhillon, is lying. The 6-foot-3-inch tall Ekam was found murdered and stuffed in a suitcase that was found on the rear seat of his BMW car parked outside his rented one-kanal accommodation in Phase IIIB1 here on Sunday morning.
Seerat had confessed to having shot dead Ekam and is in police custody till tomorrow. However, even 24 hours after the Chief Minister, Capt Amarinder Singh’s order, the local police have not yet named Seerat’s close friend Nimardeep Singh in the FIR.
A Punjab Government Executive Engineer, Nimardeep, according to Ekam’s human rights activist father Jaspal Singh Dhillon, owns the Porsche car in which Seerat was brought to the Mataur police station on Sunday evening, and helped senior bureaucrats and politicians invest their ill-gotten money in the real estate sector. Dhillon also alleged that Nimardeep was well-connected with the bigwigs and enjoyed their patronage.
The police would approach the local court tomorrow when Seerat would be produced again to get permission to carry out a lie-detector test on her.
Confirming this, Mohali SSP Kuldeep Singh Chahal told that Seerat kept changing her statements to the police and it was necessary to go in for a lie-detector test on her to determine the truth regarding the murder of Ekam. “A request in this regard would be made to the court to get permission for the test,” he disclosed.
The SSP said Nimardeep Singh was called to his office today and the police had started questioning him. “During the investigations, if the police came to the conclusion that he had also played some role in the murder, his name would be added to the FIR,” Chahal said.
The SSP sent Nimardeep to the CIA staff in Kharar, where also he was made to sit for some time. He added that police teams had been sent to various places to nab Seerat’s brother and others named in the FIR. However, no other arrest was made as yet.
While the police have not yet booked Nimardeep, mystery shrouds the identity of Jagat, who SP (City) Parminder Singh Bhandal claimed had accompanied Seerat’s brother Vinay Partap Singh to Ekam’s house before the murder on Saturday night.
“On March 18, Seerat arrived at her house around 8 pm while her brother, Vinay Partap Singh, and his friend, Jagat, reached the area a little later between 8.15 pm and 8.30 pm, but kept sitting in their car. Ekam reached his house around 10 pm. Vinay and Jagat then followed Ekam into the house,” the SP had told the media on Sunday. Seerat had also told the court on Monday that her brother Vinay and his friend Jagat had helped her in disposing of Ekam’s body. However, those close to the victim’s family suspect that it may be a ploy to “save the real culprit”.
An auto-rickshaw driver, who informed the police about the murder but his identity was not disclosed by the police, had told the police that he saw two women carrying a bag, which seemed to be quite heavy. They sought his help in placing the bag in the BMW car.
When the auto-rickshaw driver tried to help lift the bag, he got suspicious when his hands got stained with blood coming out of the bag. He left immediately and informed a PCR vehicle parked near the area. Even though Seerat had nowhere admitted that any woman had helped her in the crime, the police had named her mother, Jaswinder Kaur, in the FIR.
Ekam’s father Jaspal Singh Dhillon told that he was called by the SSP to his office on Tuesday following directions from the Punjab Chief Minister’s office. He said the SSP had given him an assurance that fair investigations would be conducted into the case. He told the SSP that he wanted to get the name of Nimardeep Singh included in the FIR.
However, the SSP suggested that it would be better to first carry out investigations before taking a decision on this matter. Dhillon said he felt hurt by Seerat’s statements wherein she had claimed that Ekam used to demand financial help from her maternal family. He said Ekam could not have done so as he was financially comfortable.
Ekam’s father said the police had provided three armed constables as part of the security cover for their family. He said the body of Ekam was cremated in Chandigarh on Tuesday.
