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.
In the run-up to the February 20 Assembly elections in Punjab, Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi's chopper was not allowed to take off from Chandigarh on Monday owing to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's movement in the state.
The deceased were identified as Rukaiya Khatoon, Shahzaad, Afreen and Danish, all residents of J.J. Colony while two women -- identified as Fatima and Shahnaaz, were rescued and sent to the hospital. "Both of them are out of danger," a police official said.
Honey was presented at the court after his Enforcement Directorate (ED) custody expired on Friday. Earlier, on two occasions, the court had granted ED the custody of Honey.
Wrestler Dalip Singh Rana, 'the Great Khali', on Thursday joined BJP. Khali has joined the BJP in presence of Union Minister Jitendra Singh and party national general secretary Arun Singh and Member of Parliament Sunita Duggal at party national headquarters.
Anand Singh is a businessman living in RS Puram of Coimbatore and now he has hit the headlines after filing his nomination papers as an independent candidate from ward no 71 for the Urban local body elections in Coimbatore.
The former Chief Minister expressed surprise at his former party, the Congress, fielding all MLAs involved with the sand mining mafia as candidates in these Assembly polls and termed it a clear endorsement of widespread corruption in the party.
