A local court in Sonipat has extended the police custody of the four accused in the murder case of a man over the alleged desecration of the holy Sikh scriptures for two days. The accused were produced before the court on Saturday on the completion of their police remand.
Virender Singh, Deputy Superintendent of Police, Law and Order, said the police sought the remand of the four for the identification of more accused in the murder case. “The closed circuit television (CCTV) footage of the murder spot shows a large number of Nihang Sikhs surrounding the victim. We demanded the police custody of the accused for the identification of these people featuring in the footage,” said Mr. Singh, adding that the police had received the footage only recently.
The senior police officer, heading a Special Investigation Team in the case, said the blood-stained clothes of the accused and the weapons used in the commission of the crime were recovered during the remand period.
Lakhbir Singh, a resident of Punjab’s Tarn Taran, was found dead near the farmers’ protest site at the Singhu border in Haryana’s Sonipat on October 15, tied to a police barricade with his wrist and leg severed.
The court had remanded Sarabjit Singh, the first to surrender in the case, to police custody for seven days on October 16. A day after the arrest of Sarabjit Singh, three more accused in the case — Narain Singh, Bhagwant Singh and Govind Preet — surrendered before the police and were remanded to six days police custody.
The accused’s counsel Yogesh told The Hindu that the police had sought four days’ remand for his clients for the identification of the other accused in the CCTV footage of the incident, but he opposed it saying that the four could not be expected to “know all and sundry present at the spot”. “The court considered our argument and granted only two days police remand,” said Mr. Yogesh.
