NEW DELHI: The arrest of a man in the killing of Punjabi social media influencer Manjeet Kaur (pic) has led Chandigarh Police to investigate whether she was fatally assaulted in the city itself, challenging the initial account that she was taken to Punjab before being attacked.
Parminder Singh, alias Pinda, of Kapurthala, is the first person arrested in the case. Police are searching for two other suspects, Rinku and Shubhi.
Manjeet Kaur, 28, died on Aug 26 at PGIMER Chandigarh, nearly two months after she was allegedly abducted, assaulted and set on fire in Morinda.
Investigators believe Rinku could hold the key to what happened to Kaur after she reached Chandigarh’s Sector 34 on the night of July 3.
During questioning, Parminder has told investigators that Kaur and Rinku argued over the alleged assault, according to people familiar with the investigation. He has sought to limit his own role, claiming Rinku was principally responsible and that he only assisted him.
Police have not independently established that version.
“We are verifying his disclosures with technical and scientific evidence,” a police source associated with the investigation said. “The exact place of the assault and the role of each person have to be established.”
The account has shifted the focus of the investigation to Sector 34, where police are examining whether an argument between Kaur and Rinku turned violent before she was taken in a vehicle behind a park.
Investigators are checking the claim that she was assaulted and set on fire there before being moved towards Punjab for medical treatment.
That would mark a significant departure from the family’s original allegation.
Kaur’s mother had told police that her daughter was called to Sector 34 and then abducted and taken towards Morinda in Punjab, where she was allegedly tied to a tree, assaulted and set ablaze.
Police are now trying to reconcile the two accounts rather than treating Parminder’s statement as fact.
“The sequence of events is still being reconstructed,” another person familiar with the probe said. “Mobile locations, call records and other evidence will be important before any conclusion is drawn.”
The investigation has also turned to the nature of Kaur’s association with Rinku.
Parminder is understood to have claimed during questioning that the two were in a relationship and had been involved in a dispute before the attack. Police have yet to publicly confirm that claim.
Kaur was pregnant when she died, according to information available to investigators. Police are examining whether the pregnancy had any connection with the dispute but have not established paternity or a motive on that basis.
Investigators are expected to rely on medical records, forensic evidence and, where required, DNA testing.
A police investigator cautioned against concluding the pregnancy alone.
“These are matters of evidence,” the investigator said. “Anything relating to paternity or motive can only be established scientifically.”
Police are also examining mobile tower data covering Sector 34 and adjoining areas for the night of the alleged attack. Call detail records and the locations of phones linked to the suspects are being matched to reconstruct their movements.
The exercise has assumed greater importance because CCTV footage from some locations may no longer be available after the passage of time.
Kaur’s mother had named Rinku and Parminder among those she suspected. Investigators subsequently examined calls and mobile locations from the night she disappeared, and evidence gathered during that exercise led them to Parminder, according to the police account.
Kaur suffered serious burn injuries in July and underwent treatment at different hospitals before being admitted to PGIMER in Chandigarh. She died on August 26 after weeks of treatment.
Her death converted what began as an abduction investigation into a murder probe.
Police are expected to seek Parminder’s custody for further questioning, particularly over the whereabouts of Rinku and Shubhi.
For investigators, three questions remain central: where Kaur was attacked, who was present when she suffered the burns, and what triggered the violence.
The arrest of the remaining suspects, police believe, could help settle the conflicting accounts of whether the crime itself occurred in Chandigarh or after Kaur was taken across the Punjab border. - The Statesman/ANN
