Miscreants set shop on fire

Gurdeep Singh Mann

Tribune News Service

Bathinda, July 3

Residents of Arjun Nagar here are up in arms against the alleged police inaction after a grocery shop was set on fire late last night. The residents said that the law and order situation was deteriorating in Bathinda as the police had failed to take any action against the culprits who had been harassing them repeatedly.

Jagroop Gill, municipal councillor from the Congress party, residing in nearby Parasram Nagar termed the repeated attacks on a family due to the deteriorating law and order situation.

He said Deepak Bajaj is a resident of Arjun Nagar and had a tiff with some unidentified persons a few weeks ago.

“Some people were consuming liquor outside my shop and were using abusive language. When asked to stopped, they instead brought some more persons and used loud music in vehicles,” Deepak said.

He pointed out that the matter was brought into the notice of the police following which the accused got completely upset.

“After dragging the feet at the police station and making numerous requests to the senior functionaries, a case was finally registered against four persons and one of them was arrested,” Deepak said.

He added that the one who was arrested was not the initiative taken by the police instead the man himself had come to the police to surrender.

“We again kept on requesting the police to take a strong action against the culprits but to no avail. We even apprised the policemen that the accused had intensified their harassment but to no avail,” Deepak added.

He said that the police’s casual approach could be gauged from the fact that despite repeated requests that the accused are roaming free and are continuously been harassing, nothing was done by the cops.

“Had it been a case associated with some influential person the police must have taken some action by now. Punjab is now turning out to be even worse than the backward states like Bihar in terms of the law and order,” said Congress MC Jagroop Gill.

No senior policeman was available for comments, including SHO, Canal police station, Angrez Singh. The Investigating Officer (IO) in the case, Karamjit Singh, said earlier, a case was registered against the four accused persons and one of them was arrested.

“The file pertaining to the case was recently handed over to me and I am inquiring into the matter. I was not aware of the fact that the accused were continuously harassing the complainants,” the IO said. He pointed out that the family members should have apprised him of the accused roaming free.

He added that the incident took place at 2 am last night wherein the culprits poured petrol just outside the shop of the complainant and burnt it completely. “We will now take strict action in this regard,” the IO claimed.