One shot dead over disruption of power

Fatehabad, Aug 1 (UNI) One person was shot dead after a dispute over disruption of power supply at village Chimo in this district today following which angry villagers blocked vehicular traffic.

Panchayats of Chimo, Kalandergarh and Burj had resolved that villagers running their tubewell motors illegally during two-phase power supply would have to pay a fine of Rs 10,000 to the panchayat.

However, last night, the tube wells of Kishan Singh and Nirmal Singh, both brothers and residents of village Lamba, whose lands fall under the territory of these villages, were found running during two-phase power supply.

The villagers disrupted their power supply by cutting the jumper on the power transformer installed near their tube wells.

Kishan Singh and Nirmal Singh allegedly went to the transformer along with some policemen in civil dress but retreated after seeing a large number of villagers in agitated mood.

Later, villagers allegedly caught Kishan Singh red-handed early today when he disrupted the power supply of Burj, Kalandargarh and Chimo by throwing a cycle chain on to the live power transmission lines and decided to hand him over to the police.

However, Nirmal Singh, his son Gurbir Singh and Kishan Singh's son Gurpreet reached the spot and spirited away Kishan Singh after allegedly opening fire at the crowd, killing Sukhdev Singh, a resident of village Burj, on the spot.

When the police failed to reach for a long time even after information, angry villagers blocked the vehicular traffic.

Later, the police led by DSP Harish Dutta reached there and persuaded villagers to lift the blockage.

The mob again blocked Ratia-Budhlada road later in the day demanding immediate arrest of the accused.

SP Saurabh Singh, when contacted, said an FIR has been lodged and three police parties had been dispatched to nab the accused.

UNI