Sahil murder case: Protest called off as police arrest three more accused

Advertisement

Tanda Urmar, January 19

The Tanda police have arrested three more accused in Sahil murder case that took place at village Talwandi Sallan. After the arrest of the main accused, Sahil’s family performed his last rites on Friday, 14 days later, with the consent of the organisations struggling for justice in the case. The arrested accused have been identified as Deepak alias Ladi, a resident of Talwandi Sallan, Amritpal Singh, a resident of Manpur and Navdeep Singh alias Deepu, a resident of Manpur. Earlier, the police had arrested five accused involved in the case — Jashan, Paramveer Pamma, Shivcharanjit Singh, Ashish Kaushal and Abhishek alias Abhi.

The Pendu Mazdoor Union Punjab was demanding financial help to the family, and had warned of setting up a Pakka Morcha by keeping the body on the road in protest if the accused were not arrested by Friday. After the arrest of all the accused, the organisation relented and Sahil’s last rites were performed in village Talwandi Sallan in the afternoon. Meanwhile, in the morning, when workers and leaders of the organisation started gathering at Shimla Pahari Park as per their scheduled programme, DSP Tanda Kulwant Singh, DSP Dasuya Harkrishan Singh and SHO Onkar Singh Brar of Tanda police station reached there along with a large number of police force.

After this, in a meeting with the representatives of various organisations, Superintendent of Police Sarabjit Singh Bahiya told them that all the accused had been arrested. He assured that the compensation amount to be given under SC/ST Act will be deposited in the bank account of the victim’s family by Wednesday. After accepting the demands, the victim’s family called off the protest and it was decided to perform the last rites of Sahil.

Pendu Mazdoor Union Punjab state press secretary Kashmir Singh Ghughshor, state youth wing leader of the union Gurpreet Singh Cheeda and Major Singh Kot Todarmal said that political pressure was a hindrance in justice, against which a long struggle had to be fought. They said that as per the law, the compensation to be given to the victim’s family before the post-mortem has not been given till date. For the last 15 days, the Punjab State Scheduled Caste Commission has not even contacted the victim’s family in the matter, he alleged, saying that the current system was anti-people.

Tehsil leaders of Pendu Mazdoor Union Punjab, Naval Gill Tahli, Dilip Kumar, Amrik Singh and Dr Tarlok Mandal of Ambedkar Sangharsh Morcha also addressed the gathering. A large number of rural workers were present with the victim’s family.