Bathinda cops raid Hry village, attacked; 1 dead

Tribune News Service
Bathinda, October 9

A villager was killed and seven members of Bathinda police’s CIA-1 team were injured during a raid to arrest an alleged drug dealer at Desu Jodha village in Haryana’s Sirsa district this morning. Jagga Singh (45) was killed in police firing after the team came under attack from alleged drug smugglers.

Bathinda range IGP Arun Kumar Mittal said: “The police arrested Gagandeep and Mandeep with 6,000 tramadol tablets at Rama Mandi on Monday. They told us the drugs were handed over by Kulwinder Singh at Desu Jodha. 

Acting on the information, the police booked Kulwinder in the case. They also had information that Kulwinder would again supply drugs across the interstate border today.”

A checkpoint was set up at the border and on spotting the police, the accused tried to flee. During pursuit, the police team reached Desu Jodha, where it came under attack from villagers, he said.

The attackers got Gagandeep, who was brought along to identify the supplier, freed, said the IGP. Seven policemen were injured, of whom one suffered gunshot wound, while the others were beaten up. The injured policemen, identified as ASIs Jaskaran Singh, Gurtej Singh and Sukhdev Singh; SI Harjiwan; and Constables Kamaljit Singh, Jagmeet Singh and Manpreet Kaur, are undergoing treatment at a private hospital in Bathinda. The condition of the policeman with bullet injury is stated to be serious, but stable.

The villagers countered the charge, saying the Bathinda police killed Jagga Singh in firing during the raid. Irked, villagers attacked the police. Haryana police personnel rescued the team members. Videos of villagers assaulting the police later went viral on the social media.

The Dabwali police have registered a case against five persons, including Jagga Singh, and 50 unidentified villagers for attacking the police team on the complaint of SI Harjiwan. IGP Mittal said they were in the process of registering a case against villagers for attacking the police and that the Sirsa police were probing the matter. Jagga’s son Veer Singh later filed a complaint with the district administration demanding an inquiry against the Punjab Police. The DC-cum-District Magistrate has ordered a probe by executive magistrate into the death.