As the relationship between the two turned sour, Ved Singh's friend Kala Pehlwan was shot dead, allegedly by Verma's nephews Neeraj and Pawan. The case is being heard in the court of Additional Sessions Judge Raghbir Singh, and Ved Singh was one of the key witnesses.

Nobody has claimed to have heard the 20 odd bullets that were fired at Ved Singh or seen the men who did it. But most residents seem to know that ``Azad Singh (Sahib Singh's brother) and his men had been threatening Laloo''.

While the entire neighbourhood shields behind their television sets, claiming that each one of them was engrossed in the Zimbabwe-Sri Lanka cricket match, Ved Singh was shot dead virtually at their doorsteps. After pumping in the 20 bullets the assailants escaped through the narrow bylanes of the village. Nobody saw the men despite the fact that it would have taken them quite sometime to negotiate the narrow streets of Mundka.

There are rumours that Ved Singh was being followed around all day and also that the assailants were waiting for him at the spot where he was shot. Yet, nobody saw the killers come and nobody saw them go. The village brushed aside the gunfire for firecrackers.

But today, after the police and media had taken over the village, they couldn't stop talking about the killing. A ``man everyone loved'', Ved Singh was `` a very good boy'' according to the villagers. Today, everyone in the village is talking about the work he did for them. His popularity in the village is evident from the fact that only posters with his party leader George Fernandes' smiling face are up on the walls.

``He waited for a ticket from the BJP for a long time,'' says Chaudhary Bhim Singh, the dead man's father. ``This is a political murder. My son was threatened even yesterday evening. He worked diligently for the BJP for 7-8 years and was yet not given a BJP ticket. They have been warning him for days to withdraw his nomination, because they knew he would eat into their votes''.

Prior to getting the SP ticket, Ved Singh was contemplating contesting the elections as an independent candidate. ``He organised a panchayat for Sahib Singh sometime back, where the former CM said that Laloo would not be able to contest the elections on any ticket,'' Bhim Singh adds. The villagers clearly told Verma that they were there only because Ved Singh had asked them to come. This reaction made it evident that the votes in this area would go Ved Singh's way. Later of course, the SP stepped in''.