India, May 30 -- Simranjit Singh, a Jalandhar-based lawyer and right to information (RTI) activist who recently moved the high court against Punjab's controversial anti-sacrilege law, was shot dead by unidentified assailants near Chaheru village on the Jalandhar-Ludhiana National Highway on Saturday.

The 43-year-old lawyer was found murdered in a secluded plot behind the Lovely Professional University (LPU) campus. Senior police officials and forensic experts rushed to the spot and initiated an investigation.

Jalandhar range deputy inspector general (DIG) Naveen Singla said that the police were alerted to a body with gunshot wounds near Chaheru village on Saturday.

"We recovered a .32-bore pistol near the body, and a .12-bore rifle was...