Harwinder Singh, who was in his mid-30s, lived in Mohali. “He was killed at the house of his manager, Randhir Singh alias Dheera at Dhanas village near Chandigarh. Dheera used to share his accommodation with Harwinder’s driver, Girdhari Lal,” Mohali Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Jatinder Singh Aulakh said after the week-old abduction case was cracked late on Wednesday evening.

Harwinder, who had been missing since February 4, was done to death with baseball bats and swords, he added. Aulakh told Newsline that the four criminals drove Harwinder’s body in his Maruti Zen car to Sirhind Canal near the Neelon bridge and pushed the car in the canal to pass it off as an accident.

The SSP claimed that the Crime Investigation Agency (CIA) of Mohali police arrested all the four killers in less than 24 hours of the registration of the FIR by his family, after which the car, with the decomposed body lying inside, was fished out.

CIA in-charge Sub-Inspector Gurwinder Singh said the accused killed Harwinder because he had come to know of certain frauds committed by Dheera in his business. Harwinder had recently reprimanded Dheera and asked him to pay up, Gurwinder Singh said on the basis of the preliminary interrogation of Dheera.