Akali leader shot dead in Gurdaspur, legs chopped off

A local Shiromani Akali Dal leader was allegedly shot dead and then his legs were chopped off following an altercation with his neighbour in Punjab's Gurdaspur district, police said on Tuesday.

Batala Senior Superintendent of Police Opinderjit Singh Ghuman ruled out any political motive behind the killing of Dalbir Singh Dhilwan, 51, who was the vice president of the Gurdaspur unit of the SAD and also a two-time village head.

The incident occurred at Dhilwan village in Dera Baba Nanak area on Monday evening, police said.

Dalbir Singh and his neighbour, Balwinder Singh, had earlier entered into a verbal spat over the hiring of a servant. A compromise was reached between both of them with the help of villagers on Monday, the SSP said.

But when Dalbir Singh and his son was having a walk on the outskirts of the village on Monday evening, Balwinder Singh's two sons, Major Singh (25) and Mandeep Singh (24), waylaid the man, according to the police.

One of them pumped six bullets into Dalbir Singh. Then Balwinder Singh chopped off the victim's legs with a sharp-edged weapon, police said.

Dalbir Singh was taken to a hospital, where he was declared brought dead, police said.

A case has been registered against three accused and six unidentified persons under Section 302 (murder) and other relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code and the Arms Act, the SSP said.

The accused are absconding and several teams have been formed to trace them, the police said.