A 50-year-old woman was shot dead while her 17-year-old son received bullet injuries at Udhowal village in Nakodar tehsil of Jalandhar district on Tuesday morning.

The victim, Gurbaksh Kaur, was shot from a point-blank range by Ravi Kumar (25), a resident of the same village. She died on the spot. The assailant also fired a shot at Kaur’s son Deepak Kumar, who was taken to the Jalandhar civil hospital.

Jalandhar senior superintendent of police (SSP) Mukhwinder Singh Bhullar said a special investigation team was constituted and the accused was arrested within two hours of the incident.

“The accused rang the doorbell of the victim’s house on the pretext of checking the electricity meter reading. The moment she opened the door, the accused fired a shot at her with a .32 pistol,” the SSP said.

“Hearing the gunshot, the victim’s son Deepak rushed towards the main gate where the accused fired at him too and fled the spot on his motorcycle,” Bhullar said.

While Kaur died on the spot, her son was rushed to a local hospital from where he was referred to Jalandhar’s civil hospital, the SSP said.

“The accused said he killed the woman due to personal enmity. We will seek his police remand for further investigation,” he said.

Condemning the incident, Punjab Congress president Amarinder Singh Raja Warring said the law-and-order situation in Punjab has gone for a toss.

“The broad daylight murders expose the failure of the state government in tackling law and order situation. People are not safe, not even in their houses. In the absence of a strong government and bold leadership, the law-and-order system in the state has completely collapsed. Mafias, gangsters and all other anti-social elements are ruling the roost,” added Warring.