Chandigarh, April 20 (IANS) Punjab Police on Thursday solved a case of human sacrifice involving a middle-aged woman with the arrest of two persons, who attempted to kill the woman as part of sorcery to get wealthy.
Inspector General of Police (IGP) Gurpreet Singh Bhullar said the arrested persons, identified as Kuldeep Singh and Jasvir Singh, are both residents of Fatehgarh Sahib.
Balvir Kaur (50) was found injured in the fields near a canal in Ferozepur village on Wednesday morning. She is presently undergoing treatment at PGIMER in Chandigarh.
Bhullar said the accused were circus performers and used to perform cycle shows in villages. They met the victim through her son Dharampreet, who became friends with them eight months ago.
Fatehgarh Sahib SSP Ravjot Kaur Grewal said that both the accused, who aspired to become rich, came in contact with a tantrik' (sorcerer), who asked them to perform human sacrifice' of a woman.
Grewal said the accused on Tuesday called Balvir Kaur on the pretext of taking her to the tantrik' for paying obeisance, but instead took her to an isolated place in Ferozepur village where they attacked her using a sickle, resulting in grave injuries on her neck and other body parts.
"After receiving information from the villagers, the police launched a probe which led to the arrest of both the accused," Grewal said.
Among the victims are a veterinarian and his brother, a school teacher, their spouses and children, whose 9 bodies were recovered from their respective homes.
Puri also participated in the last rites of Savinder Singh held at Gurudwara Guru Arjan Dev ji in Tilak Nagar on Monday. He offered his deepest condolences to the family and the Afghan Sikh community living in India.
The plea said the Central government, contrary to the constitutional provisions and without having approval from the Parliament and without any gazette notification, quashed the century-old army selection process and imposed the scheme on the country.
The two accused shooters, identified as Priyavrat alias Fauji (26), a resident of Sonipat in Haryana, and Kashish alias Kuldeep (24), a resident of Jhajjar in Haryana, were arrested from Kutch district in Gujarat on Sunday.
In June 2019, Ram Rahim Singh had withdrawn his parole plea after the state BJP government was cornered by opposition parties for favouring the self-styled godman, who sought parole for 42 days to tend to his agricultural fields at his sect's headquarters in Sirsa town.
The Chief Minister, in a statement, said that the decision "reflects the sorry state of affairs in the country as the party in power is recklessly running the country without bothering about its youth".
