Hired gun owns up to killing Indian man

MANILA, Philippines - An alleged gun-for-hire, who has been wanted by the law since 1987, has reportedly confessed to killing an Indian national in Sampaloc, Manila almost two months ago.

Margarito Jerusalem, 42, of Geronimo st., Sampaloc, was arrested by operatives of the Manila Police District’s Special Task Group (STG) last week on the strength of a warrant of arrest issued by Regional Trial Court Branch 28 for violation of Presidential Decree 1866 for illegal possession of firearm.

During tactical interrogation, Jerusalem confessed to shooting Gurbreet Singh on April 21, killing Singh and wounding his wife, Kanwaldeep Kaur, according to STG commander Chief Inspector Rene de Jesus.

Jerusalem said he was paid P30,000 for the job but refused to name the mastermind and insisted that his contact man was also killed by another Indian group.

“The suspect refused to divulge any other details, except admitting that he was the gunman in the Gurbreet ambush-slay,” De Jesus told The STAR.

MPD officer-in-charge Chief Superintendent Rodolfo Magtibay has tasked concerned police units to solve the series of ambushes involving Indian nationals since 2007, which already claimed the lives of three members of an Indian family.

Kirandeep Kaur, an Indian moneylender, was shot dead while collecting debt payments in Sampaloc, Manila on May 1. Kirandeep was the sister of Gurbreet Singh, whom the former suspected of having a hand in the ambush of her Indian husband in 2007, also in Sampaloc.

Jerusalem said he was hired to ambush Gurbreet and his wife Kanwaldeep Kaur, again in Sampaloc, on April 21.

Police said the three ambushes since 2007 were perpetrated by suspected hired killers, who did not take any money or valuables from the victims.

“It seems the Sampaloc ambushes were directed on two feuding Indian families. We will try to dig deeper into these cases despite the absence of complainants from the two families,” De Jesus said.

According to SPO4 Joji Marcelo, his team is verifying reports that the ambushes were an offshoot of a rivalry over the money-lending business of the two families. De Jesus is calling on the Indian community to coordinate with the STG operatives to put an end to the ambushes.