Jamshedpur, Feb. 3: The court of additional district judge XI, SK Singh today convicted four persons, including a woman in the Kulraj Singh murder case registered with the Bistupur police station on April 10, 2005. They were identified as Surya Patel, his wife Uma Patel, Santosh Agrawal alias Dhabu and BJP leader Niraj Singh.
Kulraj (32) was gunned down by two bike-borne assailants near his house in Gurdwara Bustee in Bistupur in the morning of April 10, 2005. In this murder case, Surya Patel and his wife have been convicted for conspiring the murder, where as Santosh and Niraj were shooters.
The court will pronounce the term of sentence on February 7. All the four convicts were on bail, but were taken into custody after the judgment today.
It may be noted that the 37-year-old Kulraj Singh alias Raju, a city transporter, was talking to a person outside his residence on Gurdwara Road in Bistupur at 11.30 in the morning of April 10, 2005 when suddenly, two well-built youths on a two-wheeler arrived and stopped in front of the duo.
Seconds later, the pillion-rider whipped out a pistol and pumped four bullets into Singh before fleeing. The first shot hit the victim on the right side of his forehead. The next three shots hit him in the stomach. Singh was soon lying in a pool of blood. The victim, a father of three, was rushed to Tata Main Hospital where doctors declared him brought dead.
According to sources, the victim had a criminal record and was close to gangster Hidayat Khan. He had a long-standing feud with another criminal of the city, Surya Patel and killing was the fallout of a prolonged enmity between Patel and Kulraj Singh.