High Court orders Rs 20 lakh relief for deceased Akali leader’s wife

Saurabh Malik

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, April 17

More than two years after Akali leader Mukhjit Singh Mukha was allegedly killed by a police party, the Punjab and Haryana High Court on Tuesday ordered Rs 20 lakh compensation for the victim’s wife Harjit Kaur.

The state has already paid Rs 5 lakh in compensation. The remaining amount was directed to be paid within three months. In her petition before Justice Rakesh Kumar Jain, the petitioner had claimed that her husband aged 38 was killed by the police party of Amritsar district on June 16, 2015, by “waylaying him and indiscriminatingly firing gunshots at him in his car”.

The court was told that he sustained 23 gunshot injuries. A special investigation team was formed. News reports were also carried in leading newspapers quoting the Commissioner of Police and other cops as saying that the police had killed Mukha mistaking him for a gangster.

The counsel added the then Deputy Chief Minister-cum-Home Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal visited the petitioner and the victim’s family before announcing compensation and a government job to the widow. The state government gave a cheque for Rs 5 lakh, which was inadequate. Moreover, till date the state government had not provided government job to the petitioner.