Father, son murdered in gurdwara premises, home looted

GHAZIABAD - A man and his father were stabbed to death inside the premises of a gurdwara in Modinagar early Thursday, police said. The assailants also robbed cash and jewellery from their home inside the premises.

Sujan Singh, 22, was sleeping outside the main complex of the gurdwara in Govindpuri area of Modinagar township. At about 3.30 a.m. three people entered the premises and stabbed him brutally after he did not respond to their repeated questions about where the cash earned by the sale of agriculture land in Hastinapur was.

Hearing his cries, Sujan’s father Inder Singh, 55, and mother Jamuna Kaur rushed to rescue him but both were attacked by the criminals who then fled, but returned within few minutes and took away all the valuables including Rs.22,000 cash and 100 gram gold jewellery from the Singhs’ home, the police said.

“Sujan Singh’s sister Amrit shouted for help. The locals rushed them to a hospital where Sujan and Inder were declared brought dead, while the condition of Jamuna was stated as serious,” Superintendent of Police M.M. Beg said.

While Inder Singh worked as a full-time ’sewadar’ (servitor) at the gurdwara, Sujan Singh, who was pursuing a bachelor’s degree in business administration, used to assist his father in his duties.

After the incident, a delegation of Sikh religious leaders headed by S.P.Singh, a former members of Uttar Pradesh’s minority commission, submitted a memorandum demanding the immediate arrest of the criminals to the police chief.

“It is a most heinous and daring criminal act of robbers that they raided a gurdwara situated in a densely populated locality. They did not only calmly commit a crime but they challenged the entire police and civil administration by brutally butchering two innocent ’sewadars’”, S.P. Singh said.