Suicide by family: 5 of brother's kin arrested

PATIALA: A day after three members of a family allegedly committed suicide at Samana in the district, police on Thursday registered a case of abetment to suicide against seven members of the victim's brother's family and arrested five of them.

According to police, Kamaljit Singh, his wife Kuldeep Kaur and son Vikramjit Singh had committed suicide after a dispute over disappearance of Rs 58 lakh, which the victim's family had reportedly kept at the residence of the accused.

Police said the families had bought a rice mill in the town a year ago and the amount was jointly arranged by the families to repay the penalty slapped on them after huge stocks of paddy went missing from their rice mill.

The trio committed suicide on Wednesday evening and their bodies were found hanging from a tree near the rice mill. Police had registered a case under sections 306, 148 and 149 of IPC against Kamaljit's brother Harjit Singh and six members of his family, including his wife and two sons.

DSP Samana, A S Ghumman, said police had arrested Harjit Singh, his wife Gurdip Kaur, Harjit's son Jaskaran Singh and his wife Baljit Kaur and wife of Harjit's another son Harwinder Singh.