Duo’s deadly claim to win riot relief

The two brothers were living in the Gandhi Nagar area of east Delhi when rioters went on a killing spree, maiming and beheading people, in the aftermath of the assassination. The government later ordered a compensation of Rs 3.5 lakh to the next of kin of those killed.

“The two brothers managed to lay their hands on Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) certificates. The MCD list of the dead included the name of one Sukhvinder Singh. Nirmal Singh, whose wife’s name is Sukhvinder Kaur, simply rubbed out the surname on the list and changed it to Kaur’. He then submitted it to the Gandhi Nagar sub-divisional magistrate (SDM) and sought the Rs 3.5 lakh compensation,” Deputy Commissioner of Police (North) Sachidanand Srivastava told The Indian Express.

Nirmal Singh’s brother Santokh Singh followed suit. The MCD list also mentioned the unidentified dead bodies of two little children. Santokh Singh submitted that his daughter Nirlep (9) and niece Harjinder (8) were also killed in the anti-Sikh riots. The compensation sought was Rs 7 lakh for both, police said.

The two brothers sent their families away from Delhi and, after submitting forged papers, took off for Haryana. “The forgery came to light when the SDM, Deepak Virmani was cross-checking the list. He immediately informed the Subzi Mandi police station where a First Information Report (FIR) was registered. The FIR named the two brothers and the police launched a manhunt for them,” assistant sub-inspector Dinesh Kumar said.

The amount involved was Rs 10.5 lakh and the brothers were now getting desperate. They kept making discreet rounds of the SDM’s office to find out whether the compensation had come through. But, by now, the police were on to them.

“The brothers were very clever. They would come to Delhi by bus, hang around for some time and then disappear. So we laid a trap for them at the Inter State Bus Terminus (ISBT). As soon as they got off the bus from Sirsa, we nabbed them,” a Subzi Mandi police station official said.

The two were produced in the court of Metropolitan Magistrate DS Siddhu on December 9 and were remanded to police custody for a day. “We wanted to know who else was a part of this racket. The brothers had named their area tehsildar too,” ASI Kumar said.

The brothers were produced in the court again where Siddhu extended the remand of one of them.“I went to Sonipat and made inquiries but the tehsildar said he had no role to play in the fraud. In fact, he said he had complained against the brothers,” ASI Kumar added. On Saturday, the court also remanded Nirmal Singh to judicial custody.y