Chargesheet filed against Sumedh Saini, Paramraj Singh Umranangal in police firing case

Tribune News Service

Faridkot, January 15

A Punjab Police special investigation team (SIT) probing the 2015 police firing incidents today filed a chargesheet against former DGP Sumedh Singh Saini and IGP Paramraj Singh Umranangal in connection with the Behbal Kalan firing incident in which two protesters were killed on October 14, 2015.

While many other accused, including former SSP Charanjit Singh Sharma and two SP-rank police officers, have already been chargesheeted by the SIT, the supplementary chargesheet against the former DGP and IGP has been filed in the court of the JMIC, Faridkot, today. The court has summoned both accused police officers on February 9.

The SIT had nominated Saini and Umranangal as accused in the case of murder and attempt to murder of Behbal Kalan in September 2020. In the chargesheet, the SIT claimed both police officers had been found guilty in the case on the basis of documentary evidence and the statements of witnesses. A week after the killing of two Sikh protesters in police firing at Behbal Kalan on October 14, 2015, an FIR was registered on October 21, 2015, at the Bajakhana police station under Sections 302, 307 and 34 of the IPC and Sections 25, 27, 54 and 59 of the Arms Act. The complainant in the FIR was Iqbal Singh Sahota, director, bureau of investigation-cum-chairman, SIT, which was constituted on the directions of the Punjab DGP.

Earlier, no police officer was nominated as an accused in the FIR but later, the SIT had nominated many police officers as accused in the case.

In the supplementary chargesheet, the SIT has relied upon 22 phone calls, allegedly made between the then DGP Sumedh Singh Saini and IGP Paramraj Singh Umranangal, to buttress its claim that the former DGP was a part of the conspiracy of “unprovoked” firing on protesters.

The firing on the protesters at both places was a part of an already hatched conspiracy. The accused police officers did not procure necessary permission from the duty magistrate or SDM before resorting to unprovoked firing on the protesters, the chargesheet alleged.

The SIT claimed that its investigation had found that Umranangal was in constant touch with Saini and after getting directions from him, he told then SSP Charanjit Singh Sharma and others to use force on the protesters.