Punjab former sarpanch shot ’10-odd rounds’ on dashcam; land dispute? | Chandigarh News
LUDHIANA: Police suspect a long-standing property dispute with a cousin drove the fatal shooting of a former village sarpanch on Saturday night.Seven people have been named as accused and all of them are untraced.Navtej Singh Neetu, 57, a former head of Mannewal village, was driving his Toyota Innova car toward his home in Ludhiana’s Krishna Nagar when two motorcycle-borne assailants targeted his vehicle near the Ladhowal bypass.Investigators said the contract killers had fired 10-odd rounds from a .32-bore automatic pistol after trailing Navtej’s car, which had slowed behind a truck. Navtej Singh suffered multiple gunshot wounds and died on the scene.Ludhiana’s police commissioner, Swapan Sharma, said a dashcam mounted on Navtej’s vehicle had captured the attack, enabling officers to identify one of the suspects.Sharma said: “Navtej was driving a car back home from his land in Mannewal after dark when he came under attack. How many bullets hit the former sarpanch is yet to be ascertained.”Police said Navtej Singh and his cousin had a history of altercations and active litigation over land in both the Ludhiana civil courts and the Punjab and Haryana high court.Investigators believe the cousin orchestrated the killing before fleeing and locking the house.Six police teams are tracking the suspects under the supervision of the deputy commissioner of police. A medical board performed an autopsy on Sunday, with results pending. Navtej Singh leaves behind a family that includes his wife, a son who is a lawyer, and a married daughter who lives in Amritsar.
