Chandigarh: Harkirat Singh, grandson of former Punjab chief minister late Beant Singh, was found dead at his Sector 5 residence in Chandigarh after allegedly shooting himself, as per media reports.
While investigating the shocking incident, Chandigarh police said that they are trying to probe the actual cause of death.
“Harkirat (40) received bullet injury in his head. How he received the injury is not exactly clear at the moment and we are trying to get in touch with his parents,” Sector 3 Police Station’s SHO Neeraj Sarna told PTI.
The SHO said that Harkirat, who was a village sarpanch in Ludhiana district, was taken to Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education & Research (PGIMER) by family members where he succumbed to the bullet injury.
Asked if they suspect it to be a case of suicide, he replied, “Investigations are being conducted. At this moment, we are not ruling out anything.”
Sarna said at the time of the incident, Harkirat, who is the grandson of late Beant Singh, was at his residence in upscale Sector 5 in Chandigarh.
Harkirat was reportedly suffering from depression, which points towards the possibility of a suicide attempt.
Harkirat was the sarpanch of Kotli village in Punjab’s Ludhiana. His brother, Gurkirat Singh Kotli, is an MLA from Khanna.
On August 31, 1995, the then chief minister, 73-year-old Beant Singh, was killed in a suicide bomb blast at the entrance of the civil secretariat in Chandigarh. 17 others too had died in the terror attack by Sikh extremists. Beant Singh was CM of Punjab from 1992 to 1995.
“We are conducting investigations. Harkirat comes from a political family and his elder brother Gurkirat is a Congress MLA,” the SHO said, adding “the circumstances around his death remain unclear so far”.
(With PTI Inputs)
