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Former Punjab minister shoots himself

Neena Chaudhary in Chandigarh

Bhagwan Das Arora, Congress member of the Punjab Legislative Assembly, shot himself dead with his licensed revolver this morning in his bedroom on the second floor of his ancestral house in Sunam town of Sangrur district.

Police, who have begun investigations, said there was just one injury in Arora's temple, caused by a bullet fired from point-blank range from his .32 bore revolver.

While the police are more or less convinced that Arora, who was a leader of transporters in the region, committed suicide, there is mystery about its timing.

According to sources close to the family, Arora was in a state of acute depression following serious disputes over partitioning of the family property and business.

Nobody in the house is said to have heard the shot. A servant reported the incident in the morning when he went to Arora's room to serve tea. None of the security guards, who are posted on the ground floor, heard any shot.

While unconfirmed reports said the revolver was fitted with a silencer, a police officer said the sound of the shot could have been muffled as the weapon was fired from point-blank range.

Arora was first elected to the Punjab assembly in 1992, when he won Sunam amid a poll boycott by the mainline Akali Dal factions. He was made a minister by Harcharan Singh Brar, who succeeded Chief Minister Beant Singh who was assassinated on August 31, 1995, by a suicide bomber.

Arora was the first Congressman to represent Sunam, which was an Akali stronghold. Except for 1992, when they boycotted the polls, the Akalis had never lost Sunam.

Amid an unprecedented pro-Badal wave in 1997, Arora was among the few Congress politicians who managed to retain their seats. He defeated Shiromani Akali Dal secretary general Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa to win Sunam a second time. Dhindsa was later made a member of the Rajya Sabha and is Union minister for sports, youth affairs and mines.

Meanwhile, senior officials of the district administration and Congress politicians have reached the spot. The president of the state unit, Captain Amarinder Singh, Congress Legislature Party leader Chaudhary Jagjit Singh and former chief minister Rajinder Kaur Bhattal have expressed shock at Arora's death.

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