Delhi violence case accused Lakha Sidhana reaches Bathinda hospital; police fail to arrest him

Sukhmeet Bhasin

Tribune News Service

Bathinda, April 11

Delhi violence case accused Lakha Sidhana remained on the premises of civil hospital in a car for around an hour on Saturday night when his cousin Gurdeep Singh was admitted after being allegedly beaten up by Delhi Police, but Bathinda police failed to arrest him.

Bathinda SSP Bhupinderjit Singh Virk said, “When we got information about his presence, our teams headed by SP (city) went there to arrest him, but by then Lakha had fled.”

Lakha Sidhana’s cousin Gurdeep Singh has claimed in a statement to police that he was forcefully lifted by Delhi police special cell and was taken to Janakpuri police station, where he was tortured.

It is learnt from the police sources that in a statement given to Bathinda police, Gurdeep Singh has stated that on April 8 he had boarded a train at 4.30 pm from Rampura railway station as he was to take his law exam. He reached Patiala at about 7.15 pm and was picked up by his friend Gurpreet Singh, resident of Mehraj, who is working as a patwari with the irrigation department.

Further, he has stated that on their way to Punjabi University, Patiala, they were stopped near Urban Estate in Patiala by the officials of the Special Cell of Delhi Police and they were forcibly made to sit in their vehicles.

He also said they were blindfolded and taken to Janakpuri police station in New Delhi, where he was tortured. The next day police party dropped them at Ambala bus stand from where they reached Patiala and stayed there for the night at his friend Gurpreet’s residence. The next day they reached their village. The panchayat of his village got him admitted to civil hospital on Saturday night.

Gurdeep has suffered multiple injuries from blunt weapons as mentioned in the MLR report. 

SSP Virk said, “Bathinda police have recorded the statement of Gurdeep Singh and has started enquiries on the basis of the statement. Further legal action, as required, would be taken on the completion of enquiries by the police.”

While talking to The Tribune, Lakha Sidhana demanded that the Punjab government should register a case against the Delhi police for abducting a youth from its territory without informing the local police and badly beating him. He appealed to Sanyukt Kisan Morcha to take action against this.

Lakha said, “We have to stand out against these things, because today it’s my cousin, tomorrow it could be you as Delhi police would target each and every one to crush the farmers protest.”

Reacting to the incident, former Punjab minister and Congress MLA Navjot Singh Sidhu has raised a question against state government in a tweet. “Shameful that Delhi police is allowed to torture Punjabis in our domain and territory. It violates Punjab Govt’s authority – with whose connivance was it done??Lessons should be learnt from Mamta Banerjee who put CBI behind bars when they encroached in W. Bengal’s jurisdiction,” he said.

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