Jalandhar, May 31 -- Simranjit Singh, a Jalandhar-based lawyer and right to information (RTI) activist, was shot dead over a financial dispute near Maheru village on the Jalandhar-Ludhiana national highway in Phagwara on Saturday, police said. The body of 43-year-old victim, who recently moved the high court against Punjab's controversial anti-sacrilege law, was found with a gunshot wounds in a secluded plot behind the Lovely Professional University (LPU) campus. Police have arrested Simranjit's cousin for the crime, said Jalandhar range deputy inspector general (DIG) Naveen Singla. "The accused, Sharanjit Singh (40), alias Twinkle, is a resident of Tilak Nagar in Jalandhar. He is the son of victim's maternal uncle," he added. DIG Singla said both Simranjit and Sharanjit were involved in real estate business and had gone to see a land in Maheru village on Saturday. "While Simranjit went alone in his SUV, Sharanjit came along with his five friends in a car. Both had a verbal spat over a pending financial dispute of Rs 5 lakh which Simranjit owed to the main accused. As things got heated up, Sharanjit took a licensed .32 bore pistol from his accomplice Sandeep Singh Rai and fired two bullets from point-blank range at Simranjit," said the DIG. He said the victim was provided with a security cover of two Punjab police personnel but he didn't take them along with him. Kapurthala senior superintendent of police (SSP) Gaurav Toora said Sharanjit fled after committing the crime. "He was identified on the basis of technical and digital evidences. Within hours, police managed to arrest him near the Phagwara bypass. The weapon used in crime was also seized," added Toor. A case has been registered under the sections of 103 (murder), 61(2) of BNS and other sections of arms act, the SSP said, adding that Sharanjit's accomplice have been also identified and will be nominated in the FIR. Simranjit was known for filing RTI applications and public interest litigations (PILs) in the Punjab and Haryana high court on high-stakes, controversial issues. On April 22, he filed a PIL challenging the constitutional validity of Punjab's stringent anti-sacrilege law-the Jaagat Jot Sri Guru Granth Sahib Satkar (Amendment) Act, 2026. This was not the first attempt on his life. On July 2, last year, Simranjit survived an attack when unidentified shooters opened fire on him as he was leaving a gym. Foreign-based gangster Jograj Singh, alias Joga Pholriwal, later claimed responsibility for that shooting. Leader of Opposition Partap Singh Bajwa condemned the killing, calling it a brutal reminder of institutional failure under the Bhagwant Mann-led government. Shiromani Akali Dal president Sukhbir Singh Badal said the broad daylight killing proves that the law and order has collapsed in Punjab. AAP spokesperson Neel Garg said a thorough investigation in on. "Instead of questioning law and order situation under the AAP rule, SAD and Congress leaders should tell the public how patronage was given to gangsters and anti-social elements during their regimes," Garg said....