Kapurthala killing: 3 days on, no FIR, no autopsy

Aparna Banerji

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, December 22

Three days after the incident of alleged lynching at the Nizampur village gurdwara, the FIR no. 305 under section 209-A registered at the police station Kotwali remains the only FIR filed in the case.

The Kapurthala police await an autopsy report to ascertain the cause of the death. Hence, an FIR in the case of murder is yet to be registered.

The victim, who appeared to be 21-22 year old, had entered the gurdwara in the wee hours of Sunday (December 19). He was apprehended by villagers and allegedly beaten to death after the gurdwara manager and workers suspected him of allegedly attempting sacrilege at the gurdwara. Villagers and representative of many Sikh organisations gathered on the spot after the video clips went viral.

Ironically, even as the police have claimed that theft was the intention and sacrilege had not been established in the case, the formal FIR lodged on the issue is on the complaint of the villagers is on sections of sacrilege.

While the police have been trying to trace the family of the youth, due to no leads received on the same today as well, the autopsy of the youth has been delayed for another day. His body has been lying in the mortuary of the civil hospital, Kapurthala, since the day of the incident.

While couple of attempts have been made by people to claim the youth’s body, the boy’s connection with any of these families has not been established so far.

Kapurthala SSP HPS Khakh said, “Another family from Ludhiana claimed the body of the youth today, but upon seeing his body they said he wasn’t their relative. The autopsy of the body hasn’t been conducted yet. The procedure will be conducted tomorrow. An new FIR can only be filed after ascertaining the cause of the death.”

While the police had confirmed on Tuesday that biometric verification of the boy’s fingerprints was being conducted to ascertain his identity, there are no leads on that so far either.