The Srinagar Police have yet to trace the fourth person allegedly involved in the murder of lal Singh inspite of claiming to have solved the case. Following agitation of the victim’s family and public pressure, the police arrested the daughter in-law of the deceased and she has been jailed.
It will be recalled that the murder of lal Singh was committed due to an affair between his widow daughter in-law and one of the accused. Three of the accused Rajesh, Mugrur and Mazrur had been arrested after the investigation, but the fourth accused Manwar is absconding. All the accused are natives of Kishanganj in Bihar. According to the police, all four accused were working as labourers for the 74-year old contractor lal Singh for the past one and half years and working on the construction of lal Singh’s residence in Upper Bhaktiyana in Srinagar.
One of the accused had an affair with the widowed daughter in law of the contractor and to prevent him from posing hindrance in the affair, the accused murdered lal Singh at his residence by strangulation on October 13. His body was transported on a two-wheeler and dumped into a gorge on the early morning of October 14 where it was discovered by the police.
Ranveer, the nephew of the deceased had lodged the report in Police Thana suspecting it to be a murder case. The bed sheet of deceased and his bloodied clothes had been burnt by the accused near their residence close to the Hanuman Mandir and police had also collected the ashes for forensic tests on being informed about it by the accused during questioning.