Jatinder Singh, alias Raja, died under mysterious circumstances on Saturday. He was found hanging inside the bathroon of the barrack in which he was lodged at 4 in the evening.
Jatinder, his father Nagar Singh, his two uncles- Ujagar Singh and Rakesh Singh had been arrested in charges of connection with the much publicised Amandeep murder case.
Here is a brief timeline of the events in the murder case:
August 29, 2009: Jatinder and co-accused Royal Singh murdered Amandeep, son of MLC Deepinder Kour in Shastri Nagar area by shooting him.
August 30, 2009: The accused Jatinder Singh, also known as Raja, was arrested.
September 28, 2009: Special Investigating team arrested SSP Jammu, Manohar Singh; SHO Gandhi Nagar Police station, Sultan Mirza; and Sub Inspector Satnam Singh. They were among the 6 police officers suspended earlier for their alleged role in fudging the evidence and changing the weapon of offence.
J&K FSL ballistic expert Sarwar Hussain Bukhari had already been arrested and Rs 3.10 lakh were recovered from him. The money was given to him by the relatives of the accused to tamper with the evidence.
September 29, 2009: Police raided Nagar Singh’s house in Gandhi Nagar and his office and recovered documents after he failed to appear before the Special Investigating Team.
During the raid, police also arrested Kaka, a friend of Jatinder Singh from Bishnah area. It was Kaka who had provided a rusted desi pistol as a replacement of the original murder weapon.
October 20, 2012: Nagar Singh was sent to CFSL Chandigarh for his voice and image sample investigation.
This order was passed after a complaint filed by Nagar Singh against Basant Rath, the then SSP Jammu, Mubassir Latifi, the then SP, Abdul Rouf Lone, Kamaljeet Singh and Hardeep Singh Gill alleging unprecedented torture, both physical and mental while he was in the custody of police.
January 28, 2014: Jatinder Singh was slapped by a witness in the corridor outside the court room. Jatinder had abused the witness, Jaswinder Singh alias Chottu, when he was being produced in the court in connection with the murder case. After the abuse, Chottu slapped Jatinder and hit him on his neck.
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August 8, 2013: The High Court denied bail to Nagar Singh, one of the accused in the murder case.
August 27, 2014: Nagar Singh was released on bail. Additional Sessions Judge granted bail with the direction to release him on furnishing bail bond to the tune of Rs 2,00,000. He was released with the condition that he would attend the Trial Court on each and every date of hearing and shall not leave the territorial jurisdiction of the court.
October 14, 2017: Jatinder Singh allegedly commits suicide.
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The case that hogged media headlines also found the involvement of the then-Jammu SSP, Manohar Singh and other police officers, besides FSL officials, in the case. Subsequently, Manohar Singh and the then-inspector, Sultan Mirza were jailed.
Jatinder’s father Choudhary Nagar Singh, who started off as a trucker and rose to become a business tycoon, had also faced probe in various cases that include connections with underworld don Dawood Ibrahim to betting on cricket matches via three Dubai-based bookies in 2009 and the subsequent years.
Before 2009, Jatinder had threatened Amandeep to close his cable network business in Sainik Colony where Singh had business interests.
“Prima facie it appears to be a case of suicide. He was brought dead to district hospital in Udhampur today (Saturday),” SSP Udhampur, Mohammed Rayees Bhat told HT.
As per preliminary reports on different media platforms, Jatinder was found hanging with a cloth inside a bathroom in the high security prison and Medical report suggests Nagar Singh’s son died of asphyxiation.
