Restaurateur from city shot dead in Philippines capital Manila

Elderly parents appeal to central and state govts to help in bringing body home

Jamshedpur: In a shocking incident, an enterprising restaurateur from Jamshedpur Taranjit Singh alias Sammy, 34-year-old son of Sardar Dayal Singh, a resident of Mango Gurdwara Basti in the city, was shot dead by criminals in the Philippines capital Manila at around 12:00 noon on Sunday.

On receiving information about the incident, his maternal uncle Sardar Kuldeep Singh, who too is from Sitaramdera and lives in Manila, got him admitted to Manila Hospital, where doctors declared him brought dead.

There is no direct air service to India and as a result his body cannot be flown in to Jharkhand, India.

However, the Union Ministry of External Affairs and the Ambassador of the Philippines can help make this possible.

The parents and the family want the body of their son brought back to the city, so that they can have a last darshan.

The deceased youth Taranjit Singh is the brother-in-law of Gurdeep Singh Pappu, the central president of Jharkhand Sikh Vikas Manch and the former district president of Janata Dal (U).

Sources say, the deceased youth had opened his restaurant in Manila, Philippines.

He was at work in his restaurant on Sunday. Two youths came posing as customers and they feigned that they were looking for ice cream and suddenly fished out a pistol.

Seeing a threat, Taranjit ran from there, but the killers ran after him and shot two bullets in the head and two bullets in the chest.

In Jamshedpur, the elderly parents of the deceased appealed to the Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi and the External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar to help them in bringing the dead body flown in to India.

The family has also appealed to Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren to extend help in bringing back the body.

Rise in crime against people from India

Manila has seen a rise in crime against people from India, especially Punjab, engaged in money lending and financing business.

In 2018 itself, at least four Sikhs were killed in Manila alone. Most of the victims were engaged in financing business.

In 2019 too, a 50-year-old Punjab man was shot dead in Manila, Philippines. He too was engaged in financing business.

A large number of members of Sikh community in Manila are engaged in the business of micro finance and money lending.

They are also called by the locals as ‘five-sixes’ for the high interest rate charged by them.

Many locals detest their success in the financing business and even the successive governments have been taking steps that tries to control their financing roles.

According to a report, in the first half of 2016 itself, more than 20 Punjabi men were killed in Philippines. All were financiers.

However, Taranjit Singh had a successful restaurant business and he was not engaged in finance sector.

The reason and motive of the crime is still under investigation by the police.