Kapurthala, May 2 -- Unidentified assailants shot dead a close associate of slain gangster Sukha Kahlwan on at Kapurthala's Dhilwan village on the Amritsar-Jalandhar national highway in the wee hours of Friday.

The deceased, Gurpreet Singh, alias Gopi Nijjar, 32, a resident of Jairampur village of Kapurthala district, was the only witness in Sukha's murder case.

Foreign-based gangster Doni Bal took responsibility for Nijjar's murder through a social media post, claiming that he was working for rival gang members. HT could not independently verify the veracity of the post.

Police said Nijjar was sitting alone in his car parked on the highway around 3.45 am when he was attacked. As this stretch is not under CCTV surveillance,...