Explosives found from father-son duo in Patiala, one of the accused commits suicide: Punjab Police

Patiala: The Punjab police on Thursday claimed to have recovered explosive material including a pressure cooker bomb, a pipe bomb and several country-made pistols from a father-son duo. [caption id=“attachment_3507393” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image. AFP[/caption] However, fearing arrest, the son Rajatvir Singh, an engineering graduate, committed suicide by shooting himself with a country-made pistol, the police claimed. Rajatvir’s father Harpreet Singh had been arrested, the police said. Acting on a tip-off, a police team was deputed at Shekhupura on the Patiala-Rajpura Road here. There was information that both the accused were coming towards Rajpura in separate vehicles carrying explosives, Patiala, SP(D), Harvinder Singh Virk said. When Harpreet’s vehicle was stopped near Falloli village in Patiala, explosive material was recovered, the police official claimed. However, his son Rajatvir, who was in another car, sped away, the SP said. Then police then conducted searches at two houses of the accused persons at Darshan Nagar in Chandigarh. During the search, the body of Rajatvir was found, lying on the first floor of one of the houses, the official said. SP Virk said that Rajatvir allegedly ended his life by shooting himself with a .12 bore country-made pistol as he feared arrest. Police claimed to have recovered a pressure cooker bomb, some pipe bombs, explosive material, .12 bore pistol, .32 bore pistol, two .12 bore guns and live cartridges from the house. A case had been registered and investigations were still underway, they said. An expert team of Forensic Science Laboratory has been called to examine the explosive material.