Attach property of accused: Court

Tribune News Service

Faridkot, February 21

Facing difficulty in making a former police inspector and an Akali sarpanch attend trial in court in the murder case of a 21-year-old youth, the Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM), Faridkot, has ordered to attach the properties of the accused.

Non-bailable arrest warrants were being issued against the accused for the past eight months. Accusing the warrant serving official of working under the influence of the accused and not making proper service of the warrants, the court had also ordered to attach the salary of the serving official last week.

In July 2013, a youth was allegedly shot dead by a drunkard police inspector in Chet Singh Wala village during counting of votes for the panchayat elections in Faridkot.

It is alleged that as Pavitar Singh was demanding recounting of votes, the police officer, provoked by the Akali sarpanch, opened fire on the youth.

However, in the investigation, the police had given a clean chit to inspector Gurcharan Singh and Akali sarpanch Parminder Singh. The police inquiry report claimed that the inspector opened the fire to defend himself in the face of attack by the mob in the village.

Rather, the police had registered a case against Inderjit Singh, the losing candidate in the panchayat elections, and some unidentified persons for allegedly attempting to kill an election presiding officer and two police officials.

Demanding justice for his son, in June 2014, Lakhwinder Singh, father of the deceased, filed a complaint in the court of the Faridkot CJM for action against the police inspector and the Akali sarpanch. On June 2, 2016, the CJM court issued warrants against the accused, summoning them to face trial in the case. A year ago, the accused cop took premature retirement from the service.