With the state Assembly elections a few months away, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has activated the probe into the sensational murder case of Avtar Singh Tari, one of the top Namdhari sect functionaries.
Nearly 15 years after Tari was killed, the CBI has released a sketch of one of the suspected assailants and announced a reward of Rs 2 lakh for sharing information on the suspect.
Tari, one of the key figures of the Namdhari sect, was murdered by two unidentified motorcycle-borne assailants at the Katani Kalan-Chandigarh main road near Ludhiana on April 12, 2011. The attackers allegedly fired at him with an AK-47 rifle. “The CBI had registered a case in this regard on January 1, 2017,” reads the communique.
The investigation now is being viewed as yet another attempt at social engineering by the BJP to persuade the Bhaini Sahib Dera, which has followers not only in the region, but also among the diaspora.
There is widespread resentment among Namdhari followers that even after 15 years, the broad daylight killing remains a mystery.
Tari, 57, a resident of Mohali, was a close associate of Sant Jagtar Singh, son-in-law of then Namdhari sect chief Satguru Jagjit Singh.
On the complaint of Balwant Singh, the victim’s brother-in-law, a murder case was registered at the Sahnewal police station against Thakur Dalip Singh and two unidentified persons.
Besides, there has been no headway in the probe in the murder case of Mata Chand Kaur (88), the wife of Satguru Jagjit Singh. She was shot dead on April 4, 2016. The CBI had found the involvement of Palwinder Singh, alias Dimpa, an accused in the tiffin blast case in Jalandhar in 2015, in her murder.
The police had been linking both murders to an ugly succession dispute within the 225-year-old sect. The death of Satguru Jagjit Singh (92) in 2012 triggered a succession war. Thakur Uday Singh, nephew of Satguru Jagjit Singh, was installed as the next head of the sect. Thakur Dalip Singh, also a nephew of Satguru Jagjit Singh, later became the head of a rival breakaway faction centred around Sirsa in Haryana.
On April 17 this year, the special CBI court in Mohali had declared Thakur Dalip Singh a PO in multiple criminal cases, including that of Mata Chand Kaur’s murder.
