Labourer found murdered in Sec 17

tags:Punjab

Chandigarh:An unidentified migrant labourer, apparently in his mid-thirties, was found murdered in Circus Ground near the Fire Brigade office in Sector 17 this morning.

The assailants had mauled the head of the victim with concrete slabs apparently with an intension to wipe out the identity of the victim, said the police. Except Rs 80, nothing was found on the body that could help in identifying the victim.

The assailants managed to get away from the spot, which is in front of the main gate of the New Haryana Secretariat Building and is adjacent to the Sector 17 Fire Brigade office.

Digging is going on in the ground for erecting tents for a forthcoming circus. The labourers working at the site said they had been working till midnight, they did not notice any thing there.

The incident also raises questions on the security arrangements made by the Chandigarh Police after a recent bomb blast at the ISBT in Sector 17. The spot is about 400 m from the Sector 17 police station.

The body was found around 8.30 am. The victim was wearing blue jeans, a grey T-shirt and chappals. The badly mutilated body was found lying face down on a mat. It was covered with a sheet.

The police reached the spot around 8.45 am. A police official said the back of the head of the victim had been bludgeoned with some heavy object. There was a deep cut on the forehead and other injuries on the face that had been mauled beyond recognition.

The police recovered two blood smeared concrete slabs, suspected to have been used in the killing, from the spot. The security guards posted at the New Haryana Secretariat said they did not notice anything out there as they used to stay in the building after closing the main gates. The people working at the site could not identify the victim.

Senior officers of the Chandigarh Police, including the SSP, reached the spot. The police also pressed into service teams of experts from the Central Forensic Science Laboratory (CFSL) and a sniffer dog squad to pick up clues from the spot.

The body has been sent to the General Hospital, Sector 16, for a post-mortem examination.