Sukhbir condemns CM for pardon to 4 convicted cops

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, June 21

Flaying Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh for his recommendation of granting pardon to four police personnel who abducted and killed a Sikh youth in 1993 to secure out-of-turn promotions, SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal on Friday said the party would fight tooth and nail to get the order revoked.

Expressing solidarity with the family of Harjit Singh of Saharan Majra village in Ludhiana who was abducted and killed by the four cops, including three of Uttar Pradesh, the SAD chief said the Congress government and Capt Amarinder Singh had committed another atrocity on the Sikh community by granting pardon to the killers. “I assure the aggrieved family which fought for 18 years to get justice that their struggle will not go in vain. The SAD will now take up the fight of the family on behalf of the Sikh community and ensure justice is delivered in the case.”

Sukhbir disclosed that a high-level SAD delegation would approach Union Home Minister Amit Shah soon and request him to revoke the “illegal pardon” granted to the four policemen. “The pardon, which has been granted only 4.5 years after the policemen were awarded life imprisonment following an 18-year probe and court trial by the CBI, is akin to pouring salt on the wounds of the Sikhs, which is still reeling under the atrocities inflicted on the community during the 1984 riots.”

He said the delegation would request the Home Minister to order a probe into the circumstances that led to the grant of the “illegal” pardon and fix responsibility for this serious misuse of power given to the state under Article 161 of the Constitution.