In a tragic incident, a drug addict allegedly brunt five members of his family including his wife, two children, father-in-law, and mother-in-law alive in the Jalandhar district of Punjab.
The accused has been identified as Kuldeep Singh Kali resident of Sidhwan Bait Ludhiana. He allegedly sprayed petrol into the room where all of them were asleep, set it on fire, and locked the door from the outside, leaving them inside to die.
The victims have been identified as Paramjit Kaur (28), her five-year-old son Anmol, her seven-year-old daughter Arshdeep, her father Surjan Singh (58), and her mother Joginder Bai (54). The bodies of the five victims were brought to Nakodar Civil Hospital for postmortem.
As per reports, on the intervening night of Monday and Tuesday Kuldeep Kali reached his in-laws' house in village Betlan village with two others. At that time, his father-in-law, mother-in-law, wife, and children were sleeping in the room. Kuldeep Kali locked the room from outside and sprayed petrol through a pump from the window. After spraying petrol, he set the room on the fire.
At the time neighbours reached the spot, the accused along with four others managed to escape. The accused, who hails from Ludhiana, is still absconding and the police have been conducting raids to nab him.
Accused is a drug addict
According to police, the accused is addicted to drugs and is jobless. He used to beat up Paramjit Kaur and both children Arshdeep Kaur and Anmol. Paramjeet Kaur came back to village Betlan with both the children and living with her parents. Kuldeep used to come to the village many times under the influence of drugs and used to abuse Paramjit Kaur and her family members.
He had been insisting that she return with the children. As the victims refused to return, the accused chose to kill them all by setting them afire.
Over 3 million people in Punjab consume drugs: Study
Over three million people, amounting to around 15.4% of the population in Punjab, are currently consuming one or the other kind of drugs. However, alcohol is a maximally abused substance with over two million people consuming it in the state.
This was revealed in a study conducted by the community medicine department of the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER) Chandigarh in February this year.
The study was conducted by edited by Dr JS Thakur, professor of community medicine at the PGIMER, Chandigarh in his book, " Roadmap for Prevention and Control of Substance Abuse in Punjab". The second edition of the book was released in February this year.
