A debt-ridden farmer allegedly killed his wife and two children at his residence in Shahdin Wala village, 7 km from here, last night.
Accused Paramjit Singh (alias Pamma), 36, later left the house on his bike during wee hours and his whereabouts are still not known. Efforts are on to trace him.
He first allegedly killed his wife using a sharp-edged weapon and then choked his kids to death while they were asleep. The deceased have been identified as Palwinder Kaur (32), Mankirat Kaur (13) and Prabhjotnoor Singh (six).
Paramjit and his family lived in the house along with the family of his brother and his parents, but no one came to know anything about the incident till morning when Paramjit’s father Lakhbir Singh noticed that his door was locked from outside. The door was broken open only to find the bodies of his daughter-in-law and grandchildren on the bed.
“My son and daughter-in-law used to go to village gurdwara every morning. This morning, when the bike started, I thought they were going to the gurdwara so I didn’t get up,” Lakhbir said.
Palwinder’s father Manjit Singh, a resident of Karma village, said he was informed about the incident around 8.30 am. “I could not believe that my son-in-law has killed his family. I don’t know what went wrong,” he said.
“Just a few days ago Palwinder had talked to her mother. She was excited as her younger brother Joginder’s marriage was scheduled for February 2,” he said. Palwinder was planning to come to us with her kids this Friday, he said. “We have lost everything now,” he said.
Sources said Paramjit was facing financial crisis. His father has 7 acres of land where he, along with his brother, were doing farming.
The police have registered a case against Paramjit, his brother Avtar and mother Sukhjit Kaur on the basis of a complaint by Palwinder’s brother Gurwinder Singh under Sections 302 34 and 120B of the IPC.
SSP Pritam Singh said, “We have been told that Paramjit was not in best of mental health.” There were chances that he might have committed suicide by now. “However, at the moment, we cannot say much and will wait for the post-mortem report and further investigations before coming to any conclusion,” he added.