A day after 34-year-old advocate Davinderpal Singh Natt, son of late Congress leader Sukhraj Singh Natt, allegedly died by suicide and the Bathinda police booked a Chandigarh-based builder and his two sons for abetment, the family has refused to perform the cremation until the accused are arrested and has announced a protest by blocking the road in Maur Mandi on Wednesday.
The body has been kept in the mortuary of the local Civil Hospital.
Davinderpal had allegedly shot himself dead with his licensed weapon at his residence in a residential colony on Dabwali Road in Bathinda district on Sunday night. He had recorded a video and left behind a note accusing the owners of Sushma Buildtech Ltd – Binder Pal Mittal and his sons, Prateek Mittal and Bharat Mittal – of not returning nearly Rs 10 crore invested by him and his friends.
The trio was booked on Monday, and the police on Tuesday claimed that a lookout circular (LOC) had been issued against them to prevent any attempt to flee abroad. Bathinda SP (City) Narinder Singh said, “We had requested the Bureau of Immigration, which has issued a lookout circular against the accused. Teams have been sent to various locations to arrest them. The accused have already fled their residence.”
Sources said that the last location of the accused was traced to somewhere in Delhi.
Meanwhile, Parminder Kaur, mother of the deceased, said, “We won’t perform the cremation until the accused are arrested. I was standing outside when he shot himself. On hearing the sound, I went inside and found him dead.”
The relatives of the deceased said that some Congress leaders were in touch with them for the proposed protest, and ex-MLA Jeet Mohinder Singh Sidhu had visited the family’s residence.
Notably, in his 8.44-minute video, the deceased had requested that no post-mortem be conducted, and in his note, he expressed a wish that his body be donated to a medical institute for research.
In the video, Davinderpal claimed he had invested around Rs 4 crore of his own and Rs 6-7 crore belonging to his friends with Binder Pal, whom he referred to as his ‘chacha’ (uncle).
Notably, the deceased and the accused originally belonged to Natt village in Bathinda district and were known to each other as family friends. In the FIR, complainant Parminder Kaur stated that Davinderpal’s father, Sukhraj, and Binder Pal had studied together. Sukhraj had served as Chairman of the Punjab State Cooperative Handloom Federation Limited (WEAVCO) and had contested three Assembly elections from Joga and Maur constituencies. He passed away in May 2020.
In the video, Davinderpal also alleged that despite repeated requests, the money was not returned. He further claimed that he had approached a minister regarding the matter, but nothing materialised, and that even a former Chief Minister had intervened by making two phone calls to the accused.
Davinderpal also stated that he had taken a loan of Rs 80 lakh from a bank and Rs 10-20 lakh from other individuals, which he said his family would repay. He expressed regret to his late father for not being able to fulfil his expectations.
