Punjab Cop Dies By Suicide After Killing Family, Pet Dog

An assistant sub-inspector of police on Tuesday allegedly killed himself with his service weapon after shooting his wife, son and a pet dog dead in Punjab's Gurdaspur district, officials said.

After killing his family members, the officer had even abducted a woman at gunpoint while fleeing to Batala, they said, adding that though police managed to rescue her, the cop allegedly shot himself at a house in Batala.

It is yet to be ascertained what prompted the ASI to kill his wife and son, the police officials said, adding that they were investigating the matter.

ASI Bhupinder Singh, who was said to be posted in Amritsar, allegedly killed his wife Baljit Kaur (40) and son Lovepreet Singh (19) with his service weapon at around 10 am in Bhumbli village in Gurdaspur district, a police official said.

Singh even shot his pet dog, police said.

Before fleeing, the ASI allegedly abducted the woman, a neighbour, who was said to be present there at the time of the incident.

Singh took the woman to a house in Batala, 35 km away from his village in Gurdaspur. Police then launched an operation to free the hostage.

Batala Senior Superintendent of Police Ashwini Gotyal said they were successful in getting the woman released. Police had also asked the ASI to surrender, she said.

Police broke into the room of the house after hearing gunshots and found that Singh had shot himself.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)