Sukhbir’s attacker Chaura sent to three-day police custody

A day after the murder bid on former Deputy CM and SAD leader Sukhbir Singh Badal, the culprit and pro-Khalistan activist Narain Singh Chaura was produced in the Amritsar district courts.

Though the police pleaded for seven-day remand, the court, after hearing the arguments of both sides, granted three-day remand to interrogate him.

Police Commissioner of Amritsar Gurpreet Singh Bhullar said that a transparent investigation was under progress and the aim was to reach the correct conclusion to crack the case.

“Taking into consideration Chaura’s radical and political bent of mind, we will thoroughly investigate to know the motive for such an extreme step. He has been associated with various radical organisations and is politically active too,” he said.

The backward linkages of the weapon he used in the crime are also being probed. “We have seized a 9 mm pistol from his possession. We are investigating from where he had procured the weapon. Multiple agencies have been taken into the loop and all technical and human inputs are being included and thoroughly being examined,” he said.

The investigation is being done under the supervision of Deputy Commissioner of Police (Investigation) Alam Vijay Singh and Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police (Investigation).

Meanwhile, Chaura’s kin have filed a petition in court objecting to the “unprofessional” approach of the police.

Chaura’s sons Jagjit Singh Bajwa and Baljinder Singh Bajwa, who are lawyers by profession, have filed an application in court appealing that the police had taken their father into custody at an undisclosed place and never informed the family and that the place of his detention was not displayed outside the police station concerned. They prayed that directions be issued to the police to allow their father to meet his counsel and family under the ambit of law.

They also objected to the police’s move to raid their residence at Dera Baba Nanak and the taking away of DVRs, laptop, pen drive, cameras, mobile phones, books, written literature on December 4.

Meanwhile, addressing the Amritsar Police Commissioner, Akali leader Bikram Singh Majithia posted on X that the police have wrongly been patting their back for foiling the attack on Sukhbir Badal. Majithia claimed that one of the SPs was shaking hands with Chaura. “Was he (Chaura) a relative of the SP? Would you arrest the SP?” Majithia also attached a 1.08 minute CCTV footage of December 3 wherein Chaura is seen interacting with the SP. Later, he concluded the post by demanding an independent inquiry by the Supreme Court against the three top local police officials.