Police have registered a case against 15 people and said the allegations of drug peddling are being investigated.
Allegations that drug users and peddlers attacked three people in Punjab’s Gurdaspur district, leaving one dead and two seriously injured, have been contradicted by the victim’s brother, who said the clash stemmed from a dispute over a mobile phone.
The victim has been identified as Bikramjit Singh, while Gurmukh Singh and Nishan Singh sustained serious injuries. Read | Medical Store Owner Who Shot Dead Punjab Anti-Drug Activist Arrested However, Bikramjit Singh’s brother, Ranjit Singh, gave a different account of the incident. Ranjit Singh specifically denied that the incident was related to drugs, contradicting the allegations made by the injured man’s family. Meanwhile, Gurmukh Singh’s father, Paramjit Singh, alleged that three to four local youths involved in drug peddling had called additional people from outside the village.
The incident took place around 8.30 pm on Thursday in Mari Pannwan village, falling under the Sri Hargobindpur Sahib Assembly constituency.
He said the dispute was over a mobile phone belonging to a youth named Jagroop Singh. The phone was allegedly with another youth, Prince, and an argument broke out when Bikramjit Singh asked him to return it, according to him. Bikramjit Singh, he said, had intervened in the altercation before being attacked.
He linked the violence to an earlier dispute over a stolen mobile phone, claiming that a police complaint had been filed on the 15th and that the family had subsequently received threats.
Police have not yet established a definitive motive for the attack.
The allegations made by the injured man’s family, the denial by the victim’s brother and the claims surrounding the earlier mobile phone dispute will be examined as part of the investigation.
DSP Manoj Kumar of Sri Hargobindpur police station said a case had been registered against 15 people.
Asked about the allegations of drug peddling, he said the matter was under investigation.
