SIT records statement of ex-PSPCL chairman

Balwant Garg

Tribune News Service

Faridkot, October 23

Probing the three-year-old incident of police firing at Behbal Kalan and Kotkapura, the special investigation team (SIT) of the Punjab Police on Tuesday recorded the statement of Harminder Singh, former chairman of the Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL), Rupinder Singh and Jaswinder Singh, two brothers of Punjgrain Khurd village of Moga, Malkit Singh, father of an injured youth and two other persons.

For their alleged involvement in the desecration of the Guru Granth Sahib, Rupinder Singh and Jaswinder Singh, both brothers, were arrested by the Faridkot police on October 16-17, 2015. But two weeks after their arrest, they were released after the police had given them clean chit.

The two brothers narrated the incident of how they were made the scapegoat in the ‘bir’ desecration incidents in an attempt to close the cases.

On the allegations of ‘bir’ desecration, both brothers were arrested from their residence in Punjgrain Khurd village on October 16-17 intervening night and they were allegedly given third-degree torture for three days in police lockup.

With the arrest of the two, on October 20, 2015, the then DGP Punjab, SS Saini had made claim of unearthing the conspiracy behind the ‘bir’ desecration. But the arrest of both Jaswinder and Rupinder had triggered a spate of protests across the state.

While the police had claimed that both brothers were funded from Dubai and Australia for the desecration, facing strong criticism for ‘framing-up’ innocent persons in the case, the police were under pressure from Sikh groups and different political parties for their unconditional release.

Besides the two brothers, Harminder Singh, former chairman of the PSPCL, also got his statement recorded as a witness with the SIT.

Malkit Singh, the father of Gurpreet Singh, a youth who had sustained serious injuries in the police firing at Kotkapura, also approached the SIT to narrate his version of the story.

The SIT has also collected the medical record of Ajit Singh, who had got a bullet injury on his thigh in the police firing at Kotkapura on October 14, 2015.

On the statement of Ajit Singh, a resident of Barnala, the Kotkapura police had registered a criminal case under Sections 307 (attempt to murder), 323, 148 and 149 of the IPC and provisions of the Arms Act against unknown police officials on August 7 this year.

The medical treatment record of Ajit Singh is necessary to put on record with his statement as a prime witness in this case, said Kunwar Vijay Partap Singh, Inspector General of Police and a member of SIT, camping in Faridkot.