When neighbours in one of Chandigarh’s most prestigious residential sectors heard that the well-dressed, socially active and politically connected woman from the palatial one-kanal house down the road had been arrested for hiring gangsters to gun down a young property dealer in broad daylight, they simply could not believe it.“Impossible” was the near-universal reaction. Yet, the arrest of Amreen Kaur Rai, a Sector 35 resident, political party worker, an NGO operator and part-time real estate broker in her late forties, has blown the lid off one of the most brazen and chilling contract killings in the city’s recent history. She allegedly paid Rs 50 lakh to the Lucky Patial gang to get 31-year-old property dealer Charanpreet Singh, alias Cheeni, shot dead outside a gym in the upscale Sector 9 market on March 18.About Amreen Kaur RaiAmreen Kaur Rai is no ordinary resident. In the circles she moved in — political, social and business — she was known as a woman of influence and connections. Formally associated with the Punjab unit of a national political party, which she had joined two years ago, she was not shy about flaunting her access to the powerful. Her social media handles were populated with photographs alongside politicians, bureaucrats and other movers and shakers, projecting an image of someone embedded deep in the city’s establishment networks.She also ran an NGO and was known as a social activist, making her a recognisable name in Chandigarh’s social circuit. She was not a full-time realtor but brokered real estate deals off and on, one of which would ultimately set off the chain of events culminating in murder.She lived in a sprawling one-kanal house in Sector 35. Her husband is an agriculturist and commission agent from Muktsar in Punjab. Her social standing in the city, however, was built entirely around her Chandigarh life, her political work, her NGO activities and her business dealings. Another critical connection: Amreen Kaur Rai is a close relative of a Special DGP-rank Punjab Police officer.A deal gone wrong and desire for revengeThe seeds of the murder conspiracy were planted in 2025, in what began as a straightforward real estate transaction. Cheeni offered Amreen a parcel of 8 acres in New Chandigarh at Rs 15 crore. Amreen agreed and made a part payment of Rs 4 crore, with a three-month window prescribed for registration of the deal.To arrange the balance funds, she was counting on the sale of a showroom in Sector 35, in which she held a 25% share. Her close police relative held another 25% and her father-in-law the remaining 50%. Her father-in-law refused to sell the showroom, throwing Amreen’s financial arithmetic into disarray.She somehow managed to pay Cheeni an additional Rs 3 crore, following which she was handed over 4.25 acres, but crucially, she was not given physical possession of the land. Adding to her grievance, Cheeni subsequently conveyed that the landowners had refused to sell their entire 8-acre chunk in parcels, making it impossible to complete the originally agreed transaction. Amreen felt she had been cheated, overcharged and left holding land she could not possess. She filed a police complaint in Mohali. Insiders say that under the influence of her close police relative, Cheeni was eventually made to compensate her for what she alleged was an inflated deal. But the bitterness had already taken root.The murder plotSeething with a sense of betrayal, Amreen began quietly exploring options to settle the score. She started seeking out Cheeni’s rivals and, in the process, found a willing collaborator in Harshpreet Singh Bains (27), a property dealer from Kaimbala village in Mohali. Harshpreet was also her gym mate. He had his own reasons to want Cheeni, a business rival, out of the way.Amreen’s son, who was also a member of the same gym, is believed to have played a role in putting his mother in touch with Harshpreet, who, in turn, became the critical link in the conspiracy, connecting Amreen with Lucky Patial of the Davinder Bambiha group through encrypted communication applications. Amreen entered into direct contact with Patial, promising a substantial monetary reward for the assassination. The agreed contract price, as per investigations, was Rs 50 lakh.The conspiracy was not hatched in haste. Before finalising the Lucky Patial gang, Amreen had explored the option with several other gangs through Harshpreet. In January this year, she had tried to get Cheeni eliminated. The two shooters assigned the task had to return empty-handed because of the heightened security apparatus deployed across the city ahead of Republic Day.When the plan was finally revived, Lucky Patial arranged everything — weapons, a motorcycle and funds — for his shooters Rajan, alias Piyush Pahalwan, and Pritam Shah. On March 18, as Cheeni sat in his car in the Body Zone Gym parking lot in Sector 9-C, preparing to leave after his morning workout, the two assailants pulled up on a motorcycle and pumped around a dozen rounds into him from both sides at point-blank range. He was rushed to the PGI but declared brought dead. Patial brazenly claimed responsibility on social media within hours.Imported pistol did her inOn April 29, a Crime Branch team holding a naka near Satsang Bhawan in Maloya intercepted Harshpreet and recovered an imported .45 bore pistol and two live cartridges from his possession. When the police ran a verification check on the weapon, they found it registered in Amreen’s name.The single discovery unravelled the entire conspiracy. Confronted with the evidence, Harshpreet’s interrogation led investigators directly to Amreen. The weapon and ammunition, though not used in the crime itself, became the thread that pulled apart the entire contract killing network. Amreen was subsequently arrested.Why cops hid her identityWhat has raised eyebrows — and uncomfortable questions — is the manner in which the Chandigarh Police handled the disclosure of Amreen’s arrest. In its official media brief, the police identified the accused only as “Amreen”, and not her full name. No photographs of her in police custody were released, and the media was not allowed to photograph her — a marked departure from standard practice in high-profile arrests.The unusual restraint is widely believed to be linked to her proximity to power. As a close relative of a Special DGP-rank Punjab Police officer, and someone with well-documented connections in political and bureaucratic circles, Amreen’s arrest is believed to have been handled with notable delicacy. Senior functionaries closely tracking the case say these factors most likely delayed her formal arrest. The police have since maintained a guarded silence on the progress of further investigations.The list of accusedWith the arrest of Amreen and Harshpreet, all accused identified so far in the case are now in custody. The previously arrested seven persons include the two shooters, who were arrested by the Punjab Anti-Gangster Task Force in a joint operation with the Haryana STF, logistics providers Rahul Sharma, Kamalpreet and Mukul Rana, and gang operatives Deepak Kumar, alias Deepu, and Sahil.