Ludhiana: Raj Singh alias Raju, who was arrested as the main shooter in the October 28 firing at the historic Gurdwara Manji Sahib in Rajoana Kalan village near Jagraon, has died in police custody. Ludhiana Rural Senior Superintendent of Police Dr Ankur Gupta had announced Raju's arrest at a press conference on Monday evening, saying Counter Intelligence and CIA Jagraon teams had caught him. He died later the same night, on Monday, November 2, after his health suddenly deteriorated in the custody of Sudhar police, according to TV9 Punjabi and Spectrum Punjab.

Source: Spectrum Punjab

According to Sudhar Station House Officer Ravinderpal Singh, Raju complained of falling blood pressure on Monday night and was taken first to government and private hospitals in Sudhar. As his condition turned serious, he was referred to Global Heart Hospital in Ludhiana, where he died. TV9 Punjabi reported that chest pain preceded the hospital transfer and that early reports suggested a heart attack, but stressed that the actual cause of death would be confirmed only by the post-mortem report.

Source: TV9 Punjabi

Family alleges torture; police deny it

The death has become a dispute. Raju's wife and his nephew Navdeep Singh told TV9 Punjabi that he was completely fine when police took him from his home at Purani Talwandi on November 1, safe and sound. His wife said he had been ill in 2014 but had no serious problem after that, and that he took a government-supplied de-addiction tablet. The family alleges — an allegation police dispute — that he died because of torture in custody. Family members said they were not allowed to meet him, were told first that he had been admitted to hospital and then that his condition was serious, and found his body when they reached Jagraon.

Source: TV9 Punjabi

Police have denied torturing him in custody. According to the police account carried by TV9 Punjabi, Raju was medically examined at the time of his arrest and before being produced in court, and was given medicines in line with the illness and medication he himself described. Spectrum Punjab reported police sources saying he had been ill for a long time and suffered from a kidney ailment. Police said the family had been informed and that the post-mortem would be conducted in the presence of a duty magistrate with videography; TV9 Punjabi reported police saying the post-mortem would be held under a judge's supervision as the dispute grew. No post-mortem finding has been reported yet, and the torture allegation remains unproven at this stage.

Source: Spectrum Punjab

The October 28 firing he was arrested for

At about 3:10-3:15 am on October 28, two masked men reached Gurdwara Manji Sahib on a motorcycle. One stayed outside on the bike while the other went in, paid obeisance and circled the Nishan Sahib, then fired towards the residential room of head sewadar Sant Baba Baldev Singh; a bullet pierced the glass and wooden door and lodged in a wall. Baldev Singh, who was bathing in an attached bathroom, escaped unhurt. Police said the investigation had found that Baldev Singh had received death threats from a foreign internet number along with an alleged ransom demand, and that the firing was allegedly carried out at someone else's direction as part of a blackmail conspiracy. Police said they had identified four people in the case.

Source: TV9 Punjabi

Police traced CCTV footage along roughly 200 km of road, combined it with cyber investigation and intelligence inputs, and raided in Ferozepur district to arrest Raju; two other suspects from Gurdaspur were also reported detained for questioning. Raju, a resident of Nurpur Machhiwara village in Ferozepur district, faced seven earlier cases in different police stations covering robbery, the Arms Act and drug trafficking, and had come out of jail on October 23 — five days before the firing — in a drug-trafficking case, TV9 Punjabi reported. With the main accused now dead, establishing the conspiracy behind the firing and the roles of the others identified will be a challenge for the police, the channel noted. What happens next turns on the post-mortem report, which both the family and the police say will establish how Raj Singh died.

Source: TV9 Punjabi