A distraught Mahinder Masih (Samuel's father) recalls that four assailants entered the house at about 3:30 a.m., dragged Victor out to a spot some 200 yards away and shot him dead.

``I was attacked and beaten with iron rods on the head and neck; then they pushed me to the corner where Victor's wife and two sons were sleeping. They brandished a gun at Victor and demanded his licenced .12 double barrel gun. They said that their sahib was standing outside and wanted to see it. I begged them to spare my only son but they paid no heed to my pleadings".

Samuel's wife, Aruna Rani, a staff nurse at the PGI, said: "They tied Victor's hands and said they would free him once he had had their boss's darshan. They took him out and locked the door from outside. Within a few minutes, she says, she heard four shots. They forced the door open and rushed out to find Samuel dead.They all seemed to be around 25 to 35 years old but because of the clothes tied over their faces I could not make out what they looked like. They spoke in Malwai Punjabi. I think local people are involved in the crime," ``Some people had threatened to kill him and Victor believed that his life was in danger ... in fact, he used to say that if anything happened to him I should be prepared to take responsibility for the family. About 10 days ago, a baba came to our house and predicted that my husband would be killed,'' she said.