Cable operator who attempted suicide dead

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, March 30

Jaswinder Singh Jassi, the cable operator who consumed some poisonous substance in front of apex court and Punjab and Haryana High Court judges a couple of days ago, died at a private hospital here today.

Before the cremation, his family members and cable operators kept the body at the Chatiwind gate, near Gurdwara Shaheed Baba Deep Singh, and held a protest for around 30 minutes. They ended the protest only after Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police (ADCP) Ketan Patil gave in writing that the culprits would be arrested within 24 hours.

Family members of the deceased held Sarabjit Singh Raju, district in charge of Fastway Cable, responsible for Jaswinder’s suicide. They sought immediate arrest of the culprits whose names were mentioned in the suicide note that Jaswinder had flashed before consuming poison.

Besides Raju, the police have booked Fastway Cable managing director Pritpal Singh Lally, husband of a local SAD councillor and two unidentified persons.

“It is not a suicide. It is a murder and failure of the system to provide justice to aggrieved persons. Jassi has been running from pillar to post against continuous harassment for the past many years. However, he did not get any reprieve,” said Sarabjit Singh, principal investigator, Punjab Human Rights Organisation (PHRO), an NGO that had filed a complaint in the Siti Cable sex scandal.

PHRO activists said Jassi was a prime witness in the sex scandal who later turned hostile. He had filed an affidavit in the CBI court for re-recording his statement in 2014. However, it was dismissed by the court recently. In the affidavit he had alleged that the accused had pressured him to turn hostile.

He said the CBI had also written to the police authorities at that time to provide security to the witnesses who were being haunted by the suspects. Instead of providing protection to the witnesses, the police gave security cover to the suspects. He alleged the police knew the whereabouts of the accused as they enjoyed police security. But they were dithering to arrest them under political pressure, he alleged.

Police Commissioner Jatinder Singh Aulakh said raids were being conducted to arrest the suspects. They would be arrested soon, he added.