Punjab: Patiala contractor murder case solved in 1 day; business rival arrested

Patiala Police have successfully solved the murder case of a contractor who was shot dead in front of his office on the Patiala-Nabha Road in broad daylight on April 4, within 24 hours.

The victim, 56-year-old Darshan Singla from Sunam, operated a private company called SS Service Provider, which provided contractual employees to government departments.

Pawan Bajaj, also known as Rinku, a 46-year-old resident of Patiala, had been running M/s Pawan Bajaj for the past 15 years and was a competitor of Singla.

According to the police, Pawan and Darshan were engaged in tough competition to secure government contracts. They started lodging complaints against each other at various government departments in order to win the contracts.

As a result of this intense competition, both individuals also played a role in getting each other's contracts cancelled.

Bajaj had a contract for providing contractual para-medical staff at a government hospital in Sector 32, Chandigarh.

As per Patiala Range IG MS Chinna and SSP Patiala Varun Sharma, police have recovered a 32 bore revolver and five bullets from the possession of the accused.

Pawan Bajaj was arrested during a manhunt near Raun village.

Police added that Pawan opened fire five rounds at Singla, which struck the victim’s head, back and stomach , resulting in his immediate dead on May 4. Singla was rushed to a hospital but was declared dead by the doctors.

Police have registered a case under sections of murder and Arms Act against the accused. They also claimed to collect a CCTV footage to identify Pawan, who had come on his motorcycle and used his licensed revolver to kill Darshan Singla.

Further investigation is underway.

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