Mintoo died of heart attack: Report

Tribune News Service

Patiala, April 19

A board of doctors on Thursday conducted a post-mortem examination on Khalistan Liberation Force (KLF) chief Harminder Singh Mintoo. According to a preliminary report, he died of a heart attack.

Mintoo had suffered the attack in his barrack on Wednesday, as per jail officials. He had died on the way to Government Rajindra Hospital.

Meanwhile, a judicial probe is in progress. Deputy Commissioner Kumar Amit visited the jail and collected evidence in the case.

A separate departmental probe is also underway. The probe team head, IG (Prisons), Roop Kumar Arora, visited the jail premises and spoke to the officials concerned.

Sources said the video recording of the barrack, in which Mintoo was lodged, was handed over to the probe teams. “He suffered a heart attack around 3.49 pm and within minutes he was shifted to the hospital, where he was declared brought dead,” they said.

Earlier on Thursday, Mintoo’s mother and his brothers approached the jail authorities to claim his body for cremation. The body was handed over to the family members after a post-mortem. An ambulance decorated with flowers was used to ferry his body.

Some Sikh bodies reached the hospital and raised slogans against the government and the jail authorities. However, they dispersed after the family members did not object to the procedure and left with Mintoo’s body.

His body reached his native village, Dalli, in Bhogpur (Jalandhar district), on Thursday evening. His mother Gurdeep Kaur and brothers Lakhvir Singh and Satwinder Singh, who are based in Goa, took the body to the village gurdwara, where it will be kept overnight. The cremation will take place on Friday. Mintoo’s Canada-based wife, son and daughter won’t be able to make it.