Death on Road: DSGMC holds candlelight march

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, September 23

The Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee (DSGMC) today took out a peaceful candlelight march from Gurdwara Mata Sundari to the ITO Metro Station in support of a Sikh youth, Gurpreet Singh, who lost his life while fighting the menace of smoking in public on September 20.

The delegation of the DSGMC will meet the Commissioner of Delhi Police, Amulya Patnaik, on September 25 in this matter.

Hundreds of people from different religions participated in the protest. They demanded dismissal of police personnel of the Safdurjung Police Station involved in hushing up the matter.

DSGMC president Manjit Singh GK during the march said, “It was shameful that the police tried to cover up the incident by calling it a case of road rage, when it was a clear-cut case of well-planned murder.”

The protesters asked the government to make people follow the law to not smoke in public places which became a reason behind the death of Gurpreet Singh, said GK.

People during the march raised slogans against the police at the ITO Metro Station and demanded that Delhi-based lawyer Rohit Krishan Mahanta, who allegedly hit his car while he was drunk, should not be let off or they will be on streets and see that justice is delivered.

Mahanta, who has been arrested for causing death of Gurpreet Singh in an alleged case of road rage, was remanded to the police custody for a day by a city court. Later he was sent for 14-day judicial custody in the Tihar Jail.

DSGMC president Manjit Singh GK and general secretary Manjinder Singh Sirsa also demanded that the Delhi Government should pay compensation to the family of Gurpreet Singh.

Gurpreet’s father Onkar Singh, who also participated in the candlelight march, alleged that the police were trying to “lure me into a compromise, but I want to set an example that no powerful person can get away with such a crime,” he said.

“My son and Maninder were out making a documentary on the life of pavement dwellers who sleep in the open in the night. What was his fault? It was not an accident, said Onkar Singh.

The case was later converted into a murder and hurting religious sentiments. An FIR under relevant of sections of the Indian Penal Code was registered.