Dead Leader In Car

Slain Congress worker Rajwant Singh Shergill of Kharar was a tough man, say his family. In March 2013, he escaped a murder attempt at Chamkaur Sahib by speeding his Maruti Ertiga car to the local civil hospital with a bullet in the left arm after two motorcyclists tried to shoot him.
A year on, Punjab Congress secretary Rajwant’s decomposed body, with the throat slit and hands tied at the back, was found in the same car in Mohali’s Sector 69.It was the morning of May 21, 2014. The killing is a mystery to the Mohali police since, even after a second investigation in six months. A police officer who was part of the inquiry said they had examined more than 50 people, including Rajwant’s family, friends, associates, security guard, women acquaintances, and their close relatives.
Given his political and social life, and his wealth, police looked at the case from the angles of property dispute, political rivalry, enmity, or jealous ex-husband of a woman friend. The investigation report is buried under a mountain of case files at the Phase VIII police station. The police officer said their final conclusion was that contract killers had hit Rajwant. “The problem is we don’t who was with him when he was murdered,” said the inspector-rank officer, who did not want his name to be published, since he is not authorised to speak to the media.
‘PLANTED PHOTOS’
When his decomposed body was recovered, Shergill had been missing for three days. “He left home on the night of May 18, after telling his wife, Aman, that he was going to Delhi and would return the next day. However, he did not take any telephone calls from his wife on the 19th and day after,” the officer said.
A morning walker had called the cops after catching smell of rotting flesh from the car. When they reached the scene of crime and unlocked the car doors, they found the body in the backseat. There were sunshades stuck on all four passenger windows. Police found that a woman had left her purse and photographs in the car. They crosschecked with the woman and came to know Rajwant had met her before leaving for Delhi. The woman had gone through a divorce that February. Police questioned her about her ex-husband and let her off after finding no evidence of her involvement in the crime.
When asked about the purse, the officer said they suspected that the woman’s belongings had been planted in the car to mislead police detectives. “We could have arrested her and even her husband, if we had been sure,” he said, “but the theory did not add up.”
STRANGE FEELING
In her statement to police, Rajwant’s wife, Aman, said his behaviour looked strange the day before he left for Delhi. “He did not carry any clothes and even left his licensed pistol at home. He just took a file with him,” the officer said. “If he knew his life was in danger, he would not have done that.” Once during the investigation, police suspected that Rajwant was betrayed by someone. Even after the first attempt on his life, Shergill had not named anyone. Chamkaur Sahib counterparts told the Mohali police that they had not identified any shooter.
The Congressman was in line for the party ticket from Kharar for the 2017 assembly election. Even his family had no idea who could want to kill him, suggests a copy of the first-information report (FIR) procured by The Times of India.
QUIET BURIAL
After Gurpreet Singh Bhullar took over as Mohali’s senior superintendent of police in 2014, he avowed to crack the case soon but that didn’t happen. The plans to investigate the case for a third time in 2017 also failed. Confronted, the new station house officer (SHO) of the Phase VIII police station, sub-inspe tor Gurbant Singh, said he was unaware of the case, since it was quite old by now. “We will carry out an investi-gation, if some new evidence comes up,” he added.
One of the police theories suggests that Rajwant was killed a day or two before his body was found. “The way he was killed makes it obvious that it was an act of vengeance,” said the officer who was part of the investigation.