Ludhiana: Shakti Singh, 35, was attacked with sharp weapons in Lohara Colony on Saturday morning. His right hand was severed at the wrist. He died of heavy blood loss on the way to hospital.
What the assailants did next is what the neighbourhood is still talking about. Police say they put the severed hand in a polythene bag, rode about 1.5 km to Rana Karyana Store in Satguru Nagar and handed it to the shopkeeper, telling him to deliver it to the family. When he refused, they threatened him too, according to the police. He raised the alarm.
Inspector Jatinder Kumar, station house officer of Daba police station, said Shakti and the accused were friends. They had gathered at the house of one of them, Vicky, on Friday night, where an argument broke out. The quarrel resumed on Saturday morning and turned violent.
Assistant commissioner of police Roopdeep Kaur said preliminary investigation pointed to personal enmity. Sources in the investigation said a dispute over sharing money from stolen goods had been simmering, and that objectionable remarks Shakti allegedly made about one accused's sister pushed it over.
A murder case has been registered against seven named accused — Lakhvir Singh alias Vicky, Dalbir Singh alias Deepu, Rahul Bewda, Mana, Gagan Dhillon, Lado and Mani Basha — along with unidentified others. Lakhvir and Dalbir have been arrested and a court has sent them to three days of police remand. The remaining five are absconding.
CCTV footage showed the suspects arriving at the shop on two motorcycles, the police said. "The arrested accused are being questioned to establish the circumstances that led to the attack," Inspector Kumar said.
Shakti was a history-sheeter with at least 12 cases against him, including robbery, murder, theft and drug-related offences. Investigators said he had come out of jail only days earlier.
Neighbours watched the attack through a window, according to the police, and came out only after the assailants had left. They then called the police.
In a separate case in the city, a decomposed body was found under a pile of bricks outside an under-construction building in Haibowal's Sandhu Nagar on Saturday. Labourers clearing the site after a two-month break spotted a hand sticking out of the heap. The man is believed to have been around 35 and to have died eight to 10 days earlier. Police have registered a murder case and kept the body in the mortuary for 72 hours for identification.
Ludhiana recorded 56 murder cases in 2024, of which 19 arose from petty quarrels, according to the National Crime Records Bureau's report on 34 cities. The city was joint second on that list, behind Faridabad.