An Akali Dal MLA's nephew and sitting party councilor shot and killed a leading hotelier in full public view in Jalandhar city late Wednesday night.
Prince Makkar, who represents the ruling party in the Jalandhar city corporation and is a nephew of Akali le-gislator Sarabjit Singh Mak-kar, shot Grand Hotel proprietor
Gurkirat Sekhon at point-blank range. In an evidently pre-planned attack, the assailants, including the councilor’s three accomplices, waylaid their victim outside a popular eatery and shot him.
The killers left the scene in no apparent hurry though the police has since failed to locate them. The police has booked Makkar along with a local lawyer, a businessman and one other person. Investigating officials said the killing resulted from an old enmity between two gr-oups of affluent youngsters.
But while the police claimed to have launched a major manhunt to track down Makkar and the others, former chief minister and Punjab Congress chief Amarinder Singh said the incident was “not just typical of the abysmal state of law and order, but more a consequence of the criminal mindset actively encouraged by the Akali Dal.”
“In this government, protectors are being encouraged to turn killers and settle personal scores,” Capt. Singh said, citing another recent case in which a sitting Akali MLA was book-ed for murdering his own cousin and political secretary.
“Even though the MLA was charged under Section 302, he has neither been detained or questioned by the police.”