Panel orders probe into bullet-tampering

Jupinderjit Singh

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, January 19

The Justice Ranjit Singh (retd) Commission, set up by the Congress government to probe police firing at Behbal Kalan village (Faridkot) in October 2015, which had led to two deaths, has found that the bullets used were tampered with later. Saying that it amounted to destruction of evidence, the commission has asked DGP Suresh Arora to look into the matter.

Earlier, the Justice Zora Singh (retd) Commission, set up by the then SAD-BJP government to probe the firing, had expressed suspicion over the guns used against the people who had gathered to protest against incidents of sacrilege in the state.

The commission had stated that an effort was being made by the police to make it unclear whether an SLR (self-loading rifle), an AK-47 or some other gun was used in the firing. The policemen deployed had carried SLRs, the report had said.

The Zora Singh Commission, whose recommendations were not implemented by the then government and rejected by the Congress, had stated in its report that the police were claiming that the protesters had snatched SLRs and fired, which could have led to the two deaths.

The Justice Ranjit Singh Commission got the bullets examined from the Chandigarh-based Central Forensic Science Laboratory, which established that these were tampered with. Tampering makes it difficult to identify the weapon from which the bullet was fired. The bullets examined have more scratch lines than when these were fired.

Though the state government has compulsorily retired an SSP-rank officer for alleged mishandling of the situation during the protest, it has not yet been pinpointed who ordered the firing.