Baljit Kaur, aged around 27, was admitted to the Government Rajindra Hospital in Patiala last night with bullet and stab injuries. Two of her sons -- Happy (aged around a year-and-a-half) and five-year-old Vicky -- were strangled while her four-year-old daughter, Daljit, was stabbed and her throat slit open by the alleged assailants.

According to Baljit Kaur, her husband, Kulbir Singh, told her around 8.30 p.m. yesterday that they would be going out for a visit to Rampur Bushahr for a day in a Tata Sumo and be back the next day. She, along with Kulbir Singh and Happy, occupied the back seat. Sitting with them was Kulbir's friend, Bunty, whom Baljit said she had not seen earlier. On the front seat were Goldy on the wheel, Rakesh, an old friend of Kulbir Singh whom Baljit knew fairly well, her daughter Daljit and son Vicky.

She said that when the vehicle crossed Zirakpur and was moving towards Banur, Kulbir Singh suddenly got up and tried to strangle her. She grappled with him and Bunty joined Kulbir and caught hold of her arms. She was shot at with a country-made revolver and fell down. Simultaneously, on the front seat, Rakesh strangled Daljit. Taking Daljit to be dead, they threw her back and she fell over Baljit.

Baljit said her husband, along with Bunty, chopped off the skin from her arm where K.S. (short for Kulbir Singh) was tattooed and they thought she had died. When the assailants heard Daljit cry out for help, they repeatedly stabbed her till she was dead.

In the meantime, the two boys were also strangled as they cried for help and shouted at their father for attacking their mother. The assailants, Baljit said, threw out the bodies of the two boys near Kakrala. From Rajpura, the Tata Sumo took the road to Ambala and near Chamaru village, the assailants ripped off the clothes of Baljit and Daljit and dumped the two in a ditch and sped off.

Baljit Kaur said she walked to a village house and got a salwar kameez from a villager and trekked her way to the highway. From there, she said she got a lift and reported the matter to the Focal Point police post. The police recorded her statement and got her admitted to hospital.

Baljit Kaur said she was a widow and had married Kulbir Singh about nine years ago. Kulbir, a driver, belonged to Banur, and was already married and his first wife lived with his parents in Banur. Baljit is employed with a security agency in Chandigarh and deployed on duty at the PGI.

Baljit, who was still to recover from the shock, broke down repeatedly while narrating the incident. She said she never doubted the bona fides and intentions of Kulbir, "who all these years had been posing to be genuinely in love with me". She said she had spent all her money and sold off all her property at Kulbir's bidding. She had at one point of time sold off her property to get a taxi for Kulbir which he later sold off, she told Newsline.

From May to July, Kulbir had lived with his first wife in Banur and had returned to live with Baljit in Sector 19 of Panchkula after that, Baljit Kaur said, adding that there was no tension between them. Superintendent of Police (Detective) Kewal Kumar confirmed the killings and said the bodies had been recovered. Police raids were still on to nab the alleged culprits.