CHANDIGARH: The UT district and sessions court, on Thursday, declared government teacher Mandeep Singh a proclaimed offender (PO) in the case of murder of his wife.
Mandeep has been on the run since September 15, 2020, the day he killed his wife Jyoti—who too was a government teacher—at their house in Sector 23.
After the murder, he, along with his sons Ishmeet, 13, and Jasandeep, 9, fled in his car towards Ludhiana.
Later, he allegedly tried to kill Ishmeet by pushing him in a Ludhiana canal, but locals and police rescued him.
Police took the boy to his Sector 23 house and found Jyoti dead.
By then, Mandeep, along with Jasandeep, had escaped from Ludhiana.
Police have, so far, failed to trace him and his son Jasandeep.
Sector 17 police had registered a murder case against Mandeep.
Police said Mandeep’s car was recovered from the parking lot of Golden Temple.
He was also caught on the gurdwara and other CCTV cameras in Amritsar on September 15 last.
But nowhere was he seen with Jasandeep.
The footage showed Mandeep stayed on the gurdwara premises for about an hour, ate food at a dhaba in Amritsar, and then hired a rickshaw to a bus stand.
“After that, he was not seen anywhere, as there are no CCTVs at the Amritsar bus stand,” said a cop.
Police suspect Mandeep might have killed Jasandeep before reaching Amritsar.
Even as UT police looked for Mandeep in gurdwaras of Delhi, Bihar and Punjab, they found no clue.
He had switched off his cellphone in Sector 22 after the murder and never used it again.
After murdering his wife at their house in Sector 23, Mandeep left with his sons and told them their mother was in isolation due to Covid-19.
The murder came to light when Ludhiana police reached the couple’s house with Ishmeet and found the house locked.
They then contacted Sector 17 police and broke open the door.
The cops found the body wrapped in a bedsheet on the night of September 16.
Both Mandeep and his wife were government teachers with the UT.