3 years after Maur blast, victims still await justice

Sukhmeet Bhasin

Tribune News Service

Bathinda, February 4

It has been three years since six persons, three of them children, were killed in a car blast that took place during the election campaign of Congress candidate Harminder Singh Jassi in the Maur Assembly segment. To this day, families who lost their loved ones are still awaiting justice.

The deafening silence continues to haunt a street in Maur, where innocent persons lost their lives and got injured on January 31, 2017.

One of them was farm labourer Jaskiran, who was crossing the street when the blast took place. He suffered 70 per cent burns with severe head and eye injuries. His condition required plastic surgery, but for its high treatment cost (Rs7.5 lakh) he has not been able to get it done so far.

After the blast, he had to stop working in the fields as he could not step out in the sun. He has a wife and a son to look after.

The only semblance of hope for him is that the Maur Blast Sangharsh Committee, comprising local residents, is fighting for justice.

A feeling that binds these families together is anger. “The state government, district administration and police are dragging their feet on the case. The blast took place at a Congress rally, but party leaders stopped caring about the victims as soon as the elections were over,” a committee member claims.

Dr Balvir Singh, grandfather of one of the three deceased children, said: “To date, neither Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh or sent his representative has visited us nor opposition SAD leader Harsimrat Kaur Badal has come to our help.”

In protest, members of the committee returned the ambulance to the police on Friday, when a religious function was organised by residents on the third anniversary of the incident. The police had provided the victims with the ambulance two years ago in case of any emergency situation.

Committee convener Gurmail Singh, and members Jagdish Rai Sharma and Naveen Singla said they wanted justice more than the ambulance. The government appeared to have washed its hands off the responsibility by simply awarding a compensation of Rs5 lakh to every victim, they said.

The committee members claimed the government had promised a government job to one member of each affected family, but nothing materialised.

After the blast, an SIT was constituted, but it failed to reach any conclusion. In the police probe, the police had stated that suspect Gurtej Singh Kala was in-charge of the dera workshop, where the car used in the blasts was allegedly modified.

Gurjeet Singh Patran of Patiala district and two other petitioners claimed the investigation had come to a standstill after news surfaced that the vehicle used in the blast was prepared in a workshop of the Dera Sacha Sauda in Sirsa.

Arun Kumar Mittal, IGP (Bathinda Range), said: “The chargesheet in the case has already been filed. We are working on the case.”