PK Jaiswar
Amritsar, July 23
The special investigation team (SIT) constituted to look into the police encounter that killed two gangsters, who were involved in the daylight murder of singer Sidhu Moosewala, started its probe today.
The three-member team, headed by Gurdaspur SP (D) Prithipal Singh, investigated the crime scene at Hoshiarnagar village, 8 km from the international border.
Besides him, the team comprised DSP (Ajnala) Sanjiv Kumar and SHO, Attari police station, Guriwnder Singh.
It questioned Balwinder Singh, alias Billa Dodhi, a resident of Bhakna Kalan village, for a couple of hours. He owns the house where the encounter took place. Sources said he procured the house and several acres of land around it recently. He owns a dairy farm and according to his family, they used to store animal fodder at that place.
The police are verifying his antecedents and looking into his movable and immovable assets, besides the sources of income. They are investigating whether he has any link with the gangsters and why the latter chose that building as their hideout.
There is no criminal record of Billa or his family members. They had maintained that they came to know that the gangsters were hiding there when the police surrounded the area and an encounter started. The police also recorded statements of the villagers living in the vicinity.
The police carried out a search operation in the area. The police are also trying to determine why the two gangsters had reached the border village. They want to establish if they had gone there only to hide or there was some other reason behind the move.
The police have sealed the house till the magisterial probe is underway. The police said the magisterial probe was part of the procedure in police encounter cases as per the instructions of the National Human Rights Commission.
Assets, sources of income under lens
Balwinder Singh of Bhakna Kalan village had procured the house and several acres of land around it recently, said sources. He owns a dairy farm and according to his family, they used to store animal fodder at that place. The police are looking into his movable and immovable assets, besides the sources of income.
Sidhu Moosewala Killing: Special Investigation Team starts probe into encounter
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