Five booked for kidnapping de-addiction centre staff

PK Jaiswar

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, October 15

The police have registered a case against five persons for kidnapping and thrashing employees of a de-addiction centre located in the Rajewal area. They are also accused of barging into the centre.

The center is owned by Balbir Singh Chandi, former chairman of the Majitha Market Committee. It is run by his son Jagroop Singh.

Though it is said the incident took place on Friday in the evening, the Chatiwind police failed to register a case till the owner of the centre approached senior police officials in this connection.

Among those who have been booked were identified as Navjot Singh of Chahla Kalan village in Hoshiarpur, Ajmer Singh of Jalandhar, Narinderpal Singh of Gumtala, Sahib Singh of Kot Khalsa and Sapinder Singh of Majhia Wali village in Fatehgarh Churian. 

A case under Sections 365 (abduction), 342 (wrongful confinement), 380 (theft), 452 (house trespass) and 323 (grievous hurt) of the IPC has been registered against the accused. 

Jagroop Singh said he had been running the de-addiction centre for the past three years and had a licence, valid up to March 2018, from the district administration. 

He said there were around 25 inmates and prime accused Navjot Singh used to work in the centre. Jagroop said recently, he received certain complaints about Navjot that he was supplying objectionable materials to inmates. 

“After verifying the facts, we decided to shut down the centre and asked Navjot to inform the family members of the patients about the decision. Navjot sought 10 days in this regard. Instead of informing their family members, the accused opened a new de-addiction centre inside a rented accommodation on the Ramtirath road and shifted the patients there. They did all when I was out of station,” Jagroop said. 

He said when he returned on Friday, he received a call that the accused had barged into the Nav Shakti de-addiction centre and thrashed watchmen Rakesh Kumar, Gurbhej Singh and Gursharanjit Singh. 

Jagroop said, “The accused took away a digital video recorder and two foreign-breed dogs from the centre. They also kidnapped two employees of the centre and left them only next day after brutally thrashing them.” 

Jagroop alleged that although they filed a complaint on the same day, the police desisted from registering an FIR initially. He said they had to approach senior police officials who intervened in the matter and ordered the registration of case. 

Paramjit Singh, who is investigating the case, said they had raided the new de-addiction centre and found the record which was stolen from the Nav Shakti de-addiction centre by the accused. He said the police had conducted raids but the accused were on the run. Parampal Singh, SSP Amritsar (rural), said the antecedents of the new de-addiction centre would be looked into. They would get it checked from the administration whether the complainant had the mandatory licence.