Satkar’s husband Jasmel Singh alias Laddi allegedly shot 21-year-old Nishan Singh outside a poll booth in village Piaranwala in Ferozepur (Rural) assembly constitutency as Punjab voted on January 30.

Jasmel is an active Congress worker; Satkar by contrast, is neither a Congress worker nor a good political orator. She was elected a member of the zila parishad in 2009, and had applied for the Congress assembly ticket along with her husband after Ferozepur (Rural) was reserved for SCs.

“The Congress high command decided to field a particular number of women candidates, and Satkar was selected as the nominee for the seat,” said a senior Congress leader.

Forty-eight hours after the murder, the police have arrested a man called Lakhwinder Singh alias Lakhi, whom a Ferozepur court remanded in their custody for a day today.

Nishan, a second year student at a Ferozepur college, was the only son of his parents, and had recently returned from a visit to Singapore. He was not a voter; he had gone to the poll booth out of curiosity, said his family. They said Jasmel, Lakhi and another man called Bhau fired several rounds, and Nishan was hit in the abdomen.