Retired IGP’s relative turns PSO, owner of house, absconds to abroad
Sumit Sharma
JAMMU: The Crime Branch of Jammu and Kashmir Police on Friday arrested the prime accused behind last month’s shooting in Sainik Colony that claimed the life of a Mumbai woman and left two others injured.
The accused, identified as Sher Singh of Haryana, was posted in Jammu as a security personnel. He was picked up from Gandhi Nagar and is being interrogated at the Crime Branch cell, officials said.
His identity was revealed during the investigation by a Jammu-based girl codenamed Vaishali Singh. Investigators said the women involved in the case were assigned code names that surfaced as the probe progressed.
On August 21, Mehjabeen Akil Sheikh (30), a resident of Mumbai, her sister Fatima (21), and their colleague Jaspreet Kaur (28) of Punjab sustained bullet injuries after armed men opened fire inside a rented house in Sainik Colony. Mehjabeen succumbed to her injuries on August 29 at GMC Jammu. Initially, the incident was disguised as a road accident, with the women being shifted to a private nursing home by two men, Naveen Bakshi of Resham Garh and Sukhbinder Pal of Satwari.
Fatima later told police that the gunman wore a mask, making him unrecognizable, but he had specifically inquired about Vaishali Singh, who was not present at the so-called spa centre at the time.
She also claimed the same girl visited the hospital later and removed Mehjabeen’s blood-soaked clothes. The Crime Branch subsequently detained her to help identify the accused and unravel the shootout mystery.
The rented house where the attack took place belonged to retired Inspector Joginder Singh, a relative of a former IGP and once his PSO.
He has absconded abroad, and the Crime Branch is probing his role. Another woman, said to be the mother-in-law of an IPS officer, is also under scrutiny, with intelligence agencies apart from the Crime Branch examining her possible involvement.
The case initially went under the radar until intelligence inputs prompted DGP Nalin Prabhat to intervene.
He summoned IGP Jammu Bheem Sen Tuti to PHQ Srinagar and ordered immediate action, resulting in the suspension of SHO Channi Himmat Deepak Pathania, PP Sainik Colony in-charge Wasim Bhatti, and PSI Rohit Sharma. A departmental probe found that the three officers failed to act appropriately, allowing the case to be brushed aside as an accident.
Police records show that on August 21, Channi Himmat Police Station received a call from JK Medicity Hospital about three injured women, reportedly in a road mishap on Ring Road. Declared unfit to give statements, they were shifted to GMC Jammu the next day without police knowledge. On August 29, the victim’s mother sought exemption from post-mortem, but inconsistencies in her statement led Inspector Deepak Pathania to order verification. It was then revealed the women had been admitted on August 22, not two days earlier as claimed.
An inquest was initiated, followed by a post-mortem conducted in presence of an executive magistrate. Medical findings confirmed gunshot wounds as the cause of death, converting the case into a full-fledged FIR under sections of BNS and the Arms Act at Channi Himmat Police Station. Investigators have since seized clothing, CCTV footage, call records, and internet activity of the victims to tighten the case.
