16 years after daughter kills self, man shoots son-in-law

PATIALA: Police here have booked a 66-year-old man for trying to murder his son-in-law. According to the cops, the accused opened fire with his .312 bore gun when the victim was working at his shop in Nabha.

The accused has been identified as Sant Ram of Chajju Bhatt village in Nabha. His daughter got married to the victim, Vilayati Ram of Gunike village, 18 years ago. The cops told that only after two years of marriage, his daughter committed suicide by setting herself on fire, leaving behind her one-year-old daughter, who was living with Sant Ram.

“At that point in time, the matter was taken up with Gunike village panchayat. The panchayat helped both the parties compromise and neither of them filed any official complaint with the police,” the cops said.

“However, on Monday, to avenge his daughter’s alleged suicide, Sant Ram reached Vilayati Ram’s shop and opened fire at his son-in-law. The first round of the bullet hit Vilayati near right side of his chest. Before Sant Ram could target and shoot Vilayati Ram again, an employee of Vilayati Ram’s shop took Sant Ram under his control and tied him with ropes. The accused was then handed over to a policeman standing at a nearby chowk,” the police added.

The police said that during his interrogation, Sant Ram told them that he was annoyed by his son-in-law’s constant mental torture as he used to make fun of his daughter’s death. “The accused said that Vilayati Ram used to make fun of his failure to do anything, despite knowing that it was Vilayati, who killed his daughter,” the cops added.

“This provoked the accused, Sant Ram,” according to his the confession statement given by the accused.

“He had purchased the weapon only a few years ago and it’s not clear if he was planning to kill his son-in-law since then,” said station house officer of Nabha Kotwali Police station Sukhwinder Singh.

As of now, a case against the accused has been registered under attempt to murder of the Indian Penal Code on the complaint of Vilayati, who is hospitalised but out of danger.