Beant Singh's grandson Harkirat dies of gunshot injury

Harkirat Singh, grandson of former Punjab chief minister Beant Singh, died of a gunshot injury today at his house with his family claiming that he was injured in "accidental firing" while cleaning his licensed revolver.
40-year-old Harkirat was admitted to PGIMER here with a gunshot wound in the head and succumbed this afternoon.
His cousin and Congress MP from Ludhiana, Ravneet Singh Bittu, told reporters that Harkirat was "in depression" for a long time and indicated that he may have committed suicide.
Police said that they are inquiring into the case.
"Harkirat received bullet injury in his head," Sector 3 Police Station's SHO, Neeraj Sarna said.

"According to the statement given by the family to police this evening, Harkirat sustained a bullet wound in his head while cleaning his gun at his residence in Sector 5 here. They claimed that it was an accidental fire.

"Inquest proceedings under Section 174 of the CrPC (Code Of Criminal Procedure, 1973) are being carried out. Postmortem examination would be carried out tomorrow by a board of doctors either from PGIMER or Govt Hospital at Sector 16 Chandigarh," Sarna said.
Bittu, who reached here from Ludhiana after learning about the incident, said Harkirat, who was the Sarpanch of Kotli village in Ludhiana, had met with an accident some months ago and was not keeping well since.

"He was under treatment for depression at PGIMER for past some time. Last year he had a major accident in which he sustained a head injury and had slipped into coma for sometime. He was taking medicines for depression, but off and on he used to get bouts of depression," Bittu said.
"In the morning today, he had gone for a walk on the lake. After he returned to the house, he told his wife that he wanted to take a bath.
"Harkirat's wife went inside the kitchen, but within minutes he shot himself," Bittu claimed.
He said that Harkirat's elder brother Gurkirat Singh, Congress MLA from Khanna, was currently abroad while their father and former minister Tej Prakash Singh had gone somewhere locally at the time of the incident.

"Tej Prakash had met him in the morning," Bittu said.
Harkirat's grandfather Beant Singh was CM of Punjab from 1992 to 1995.
On August 31, 1995, the then Chief Minister, 73-year-old Beant Singh, was killed in a suicide bomb blast at the entrance of the civil secretariat in Chandigarh. 17 others too died in the terror attack by Sikh extremists.
Meanwhile, Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal expressed profound grief and sorrow over the demise of Harkirat.
Congress General Secretary in-charge party's Punjab Affairs Shakeel Ahmad and Punjab Congress President Capt Amarinder Singh also condoled Harkirat's death.
Leader of Opposition in Punjab Assembly, Charanjit Singh Channi, also condoled the death of Harkirat Singh.

"Harkirat was very polite and humble in nature and he was a very good human being," Channi said in his condolence message here.