The wife of an incumbent Cabinet minister belonging to the Bharatiya Janata Party as well as his legislator son have been booked for allegedly murdering a close relative.
Three days after the sarpanch of Behram village, Jagdish Mehmi succumbed to the “poison” that had allegedly been mixed in his food, the Nawanshahar police filed an FIR charging technical education minister Swarna Ram’s wife Prakash Kaur, son Mohan Lal (MLA from Banga), daughter-in-law Santosh Kumari and personal assistant Jaswinder Singh with conspiracy and murder.
Nawanshahar SSP Narinder Bhargava said, “The case was filed after the victim’s wife submitted a written complaint naming all the accused.” Dalbir Kaur told the police her dying husband told her he had been poisoned in the MLA’s home. Sources said Mohan Lal, who is a SAD legislator, was “angry” with his cousin Jagdish Mehmi for openly expressing support for former finance minister-turned-rebel Manpreet Badal. “Mohan Lal invited Jagdish to his home for dinner on February 20 to settle the dispute with him. But shortly after eating, Jagdish complained of sharp abdominal pains,” officials said.
While MLA Mohan Lal has vehemently refuted the charges insisting neither he nor his wife were present at home on Sunday night, Punjab’s deputy chief minister Sukhbir Badal has assured “a fair investigation and trial,” declaring that “no party leader can take the law into his hands to settle personal scores.”
The case is nonetheless set to take on a major political colour with Mr Manpreet Badal vowing to exact justice for his supporter.