Probe Bhai Nirmal Singh's death, says panel

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, April 5

The National Commission for Scheduled Castes (NCSC) has directed the Punjab Government to form a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to inquire into the allegations of discrimination meted out to former Hazoori Ragi Bhai Nirmal Singh during his treatment at hospital in Amritsar. He died of Covid last week.

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Former SAD legislator Inder Iqbal Singh Atwal on Sunday said the NCSC had issued notices to the Chief Secretary and the Director General of Police (DGP) following his complaint to the commission.

He also sought action against Amritsar’s Verka village residents who did not allow the cremation of Bhai Nirmal Singh. “In the last telephonic conversation he had with his family, Bhai Nirmal Singh said that he was not attended to for four hours in the hospital and that he had lost all hopes of survival,” Atwal said.

He also claimed that at the time of Bhai Nirmal Singh’s cremation, a government teacher, who is a secretary of the Punjab Congress, and his wife, who is a councillor, had locked gates of the Verka cremation. The former legislator said his death had shattered the Sikh Panth, particularly the Dalit community.