Widow, her disabled son hacked to death in Ludhiana’s Raikot

A 55-year-old widow and her physically challenged son were hacked to death by unidentified assailants at their house at Raikot, 45 km from here, on Saturday.

The double murder has sent shockwaves in the area. Police suspect it to be handiwork of robbers as they found house ransacked and some boxes broken into.

The victims have been identified as Gurjit Kaur, 55, and her son Pardeep Singh, 26, both residents of Basravan village. The lower half of Pardeep’s body had been paralysed since birth. The woman had lost her husband in 2001.

Raikot Sadar police station in-charge sub-inspector Nidhan Singh said the victims were staying in a one-room house, which he surrounded by fields. “It looks like the assailants barged into the house after scaling the compound wall. The woman’s body was found lying on the cot, while her son was found dead on the floor. There is no sign of struggle which indicates that the assailants have murdered the woman and her son in their sleep,” said the SI.

The villagers came to know about the killings on Saturday after one of the relatives of the woman came to see her around 11 am. When her repeated knocks at the door went unanswered, she asked some workers nearby to scale the wall and open the door.

The workers found the bodies lying in the poll of blood following which the police were informed.

Villagers stated that the woman had rented out a chunk of land and received the payment for it on Friday. The SHO said locks of some iron boxes in the house were also found broken. “We are looking into all angles. A case under section 302 of the IPC has been registered against unidentified accused. We are scanning CCTV footage of the nearby areas to gather clues,” said the police officer.