Panchayat land row led to Congress leader's murder: Cops

Ludhiana: Around a week after a Congress Block President was brutally murdered with an axe in Takhran village, the Ludhiana police on Saturday ruled out contract killing or political motives, maintaining the crime was linked to a Panchayat land dispute. Police arrested the two main accused, Vijay Kumar (22) and Lucky (27), both residents of Machhiwara, from Bihar. On the late evening of March 29, the victim, Parminder Tiwari, was attacked with an axe in Takhran village and later succumbed to his injuries during treatment at a private hospital. Addressing mediapersons on Saturday, DCP Rural Jaskiranjit Singh Teja stated that the murder occurred at Malwa Chowk around 6:30 pm, where two unidentified assailants arrived on a motorcycle and killed Tiwari.The accused fled the scene, after which a murder case was registered against unidentified persons at the Koom Kalan police station. The DCP noted that the police constituted three to four teams of ACP-rank officers to launch an investigation. Subsequently, the two motorcycle-borne accused were nominated in the case, and police parties were dispatched to Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, and Bihar, while the case was also probed locally since the accused belonged to the Machhiwara area. Besides the two primary suspects, four others were previously arrested for harboring and providing shelter to them. These individuals were identified as Jai Singh (55), the father of Vijay Kumar; Ravi Kumar and Amrish, both brothers of Vijay; and Sunil Kumar, Vijay's uncle.Accused held from BiharThe main accused were eventually apprehended from the Jamalpur area of Munger in Bihar, with significant assistance from the Bihar Police. Officials stated that Vijay murdered Tiwari because the latter had prevented him from encroaching on Panchayat land located behind his house. Consequently, Vijay harbored a grudge and had informed his family three to four days prior to the incident that he intended to kill Tiwari. The DCP reiterated that the motive was strictly a land-related issue rather than political or contract-based. After the attack, the accused fled to Delhi by bus and boarded a train to Bihar before their arrest. The investigation confirms that personal animosity over local land oversight was the sole driver behind the fatal assault.