Iqbal Singh Boparai, who hailed from Urmar Tanda in Hoshiarpur and won a bronze at the 1983 Asian Athletics Championship in Kuwait, called his son and daughter to tell that he killed their mother and grandmother
Agencies
NEW YORK: A 63-year-old former Indian shot-putter, who won a bronze medal for the country at the 1983 Asian Athletics Championship, has been charged with killing his wife and mother in Delaware County in Pennsylvania in the US.
Iqbal Singh Boparai called police Sunday morning to tell officers that he had killed his wife and mother.
According to The Philadeliphia Inquirer, when police arrived at Iqbal Singh’s home on Rockwood Road in Newtown Township in Delware County, they found him covered in blood, suffering from self-inflicted stab wounds. Inside the home, the bodies of the two women were found. Singh’s mother, Nasib Kaur, was found on the first floor with her throat slit while his wife, Jaspal Kaur, was found upstairs, wounded. The two women were pronounced dead at the scene.
The police have not yet ascertained the motive behind the killings.
He was charged with first and third degree murder and denied bail.
His son and daughter reportedly called him and their mother on their cell phones early Sunday, but got no response. But when they called on their parents’ home number, Singh told them that he had killed their mother and grandmother and asked them to “call the police to come get me.”
Hailing from Urmar Tanda in Hoshiarpur district, Boparai had won a bronze medal in shot put at the 1983 Asian Athletics Championships in Kuwait. He also win the gold at the Permit Meet in New Delhi in September 1988 with a throw of 18.77m.
Iqbal Singh Boparai worked for Tata Steel and then Punjab Police before migrating to the US more than two deacdes ago. He was working as a cab driver.
CBS quoted neighbours as saying that he was often seen walking and meditating in the neighbourhood, but something seemed off a day before the killings.
“He didn’t seem to be his usual self. When he was doing his prayers, I just kind of sensed that he was maybe a little bit off or agitated about something,” neighbour Sue Davison was quoted as saying.
