Ludhiana: The 34-year-old son of the owner of Ludhiana’s popular Pandit Kulche-Chhole food joint was shot dead at a birthday party in the city in the wee hours of Thursday.Police say the shooting followed an argument during the party. Victim Rahul Sharma was taken to hospital but couldn’t be saved. Police commissioner Swapan Sharma said the murder weapon is a .32 calibre revolver, licenced to a family member of one of the accused, Gagandeep Arora. One of the suspects in the case also owns a popular eatery.“It appears to be a crime of passion. There was no pre-existing enmity,” DCP-city Alam Vijay Singh said.According to the DCP, police were alerted that a young man had been shot in a colony in Daad locality. A team from Lalton police chowky went to the spot and learnt that some friends had already taken the victim to hospital. They were told that 8-10 youths were attending a birthday party when an argument broke out and someone shot Rahul.Rahul’s brother-in-law Piyush Sharma said he was informed of the shooting by one of the men at the party around 1.45am. He rushed to the hospital but Rahul had died by then,Asked how many bullets were fired, Piyush said that Akhil Joshi, one of the accused, recalled a single gunshot. Preliminary probe, however, revealed two bullet wounds. “One of them hit him in the chest, the other grazed his stomach,” said a police officer.On the basis of Piyush’s complaint, Sadar police station registered a case of murder against eight people — Akhil of Talwara Colony, whose birthday they were celebrating, Gagandeep Arora of Moga, Parmraj, Amritpal, Gaurav, Gautam, Sagar, Karan and Saksham. All of them are on the run.Akhil later posted a video on his Facebook account claiming innocence. He said Rahul was their friend and the shooting was accidental. He claimed that Gagandeep had taken out his revolver and placed it on the table when it suddenly went off. They immediately took Rahul to hospital. Akhil said they left the hospital out of fear of Rahul’s family’s reaction.Asked if it was an accident, as claimed by Akhil, Sharma said the truth will be known by Friday.On the police chief’s directions, four teams from Crime Investigation Agency and Sadar police station have been formed to nab the accused. A police officer said they are confident of rounding up all of them quickly.Rahul’s father Kuldeep Kumar said he was in Himachal when the incident happened and has rushed back home.Rahul was married for two and a half years. He is survived by his parents, wife and a married sister. His father migrated from Himachal and started the kulche-chhole business from a roadside stall around 70 years ago. The family’s no-garlic recipe had heaps of flavour and quickly became a hit with Ludhiana residents. It was Rahul who expanded the business but tragedy struck.
