Murder victim's kin seek justice, hold up traffic

Ludhiana: Traffic came to a halt for three hours on Link Road following a protest staged by relatives of Vikrant Kumar. The protesters demanded justice for the deceased, Vikrant, an auto driver, who was murdered on Thursday evening by Gaurav Sharma, a history-sheeter.
Initially, the protest was staged outside the Dugri police station for almost one hour.Later, agitators blocked the Link Road, triggering a traffic jam from the Bus Stand to Dholewal Chowk.
Expressing his grievance, younger brother of the deceased, Vikas Kumar said, "I will not cremate my brother's body until the murderer is hanged. We will stage another protest in Bharat Nagar Chowk for the same".
However, the demonstration held up commuters for hours.
Balkar Singh, a commuter who was stranded, said, "I needed to go to the passport office. But due to the long traffic jam, I was stuck in the traffic for a long time."
Another commuter stuck in traffic, Devinder Kumar said, "I need to reach my office as I am already late".
Meanwhile, MLA Simarjeet Singh Bains expressed solidarity with the relatives of the victim. "I assure relatives of the deceased that the case will become stronger after the postmortem of the victim and the body of the deceased will remain in hospital till the accused are arrested," he said.
Deploring open "gundaraj" in the city, he said police should act tough on criminals to maintain law and order.
For now, the body is in the civil hospital. Authorities have asked the victim's family members to take it away after the postmortem.
But protesters say the family members will not take the body till the murders are hanged.