M A I N   N E W S

In hospital, unfit to leave
Chitleen K Sethi
Tribune News Service

S. S.Virk was remanded to two-day police custody by duty magistrate Lalit Singla, who came to the Civil Hospital to hear the case. After a discussion with the doctors, he ordered that Virk be questioned by the investigating officer in the hospital itself. During this period, Virk would be medically examined every six hours. Meanwhile, Virk and his father Kuldeep Singh Virk have decided to return the Padmashree awards given to them in protest against the arrest.

Mohali, September 9
For a Director-General of Police (DGP) the surroundings were familiar. Only this time he was on the other side of law. S.S. Virk, former DGP of the state, got no salutes at the Phase VIII police station as he got of the car that brought him from Delhi to Mohali this afternoon.

Supporting a light blue turban, a visibly shaken Virk could barely mumble out that the case against him was false and fabricated and this was a part of the new government’s policy of victimisation and political vendetta.

Virk was brought to the police station by a team of the Vigilance Bureau headed by DIG, Vigilance, Patiala, B.K. Bawa, SSP Shiv Kumar and SP Surjeet Grewal. All three had served at various posts under Virk.

Virk was kept in the police station for over two hours before being taken to the Civil Hospital here for a medical examination. While mediapersons were not allowed to enter the police station, sources inside the police station said he was offered tea and lunch and made to sit comfortably.

At the hospital, a medical board was constituted and the three doctors who examined Virk declared him unfit to leave the hospital as his blood pressure had shot up. Virk was also found to be suffering from a long-standing malignancy, diabetes, urinary tract and gall bladder problems. Virk would be under observation at the hospital for at least a day.

Incidentally, no member of Virk’s family was present either at the police station or the hospital. Virk’s lawyer Charanjit Singh Bakshi, who waited at the Mohali Courts through the day for the bureau to produce him before the duty magistrate, said he would be moving an application to get a medical examination of his client from the PGI.

Vijaypal Singh Dimpy was also brought for a medical examination at the Civil Hospital. Dimpy had earlier named Virk in a case registered against him at Kharar in March this year. Dimpy was then arrested on charges of trying to usurp land belonging to Mohinder Kaur, a war widow. Dimpy had told the Kharar police that he had received a cheque of Rs 50 lakh and Rs 80,000 as cash from Virk to buy the land.

A diabetic Dimpy is suffering from a heart disease also. He informed the vigilance officers that he is undergoing treatment at Fortis and requested to be shifted there.