Year on, no headway in dera follower murder case
Aman Sood
Tribune News Service
Patiala, July 16
Almost a year after the murder of Mohinder Pal Bittu, the prime suspect in the 2015 Bargari sacrilege case, inside the Nabha jail, the victim’s family is clueless about the real motive behind the attack.
Police have claimed that Bittu, who was booked in the 2015 sacrilege cases and arrested in 2018, was killed by two inmates, Maninder Singh and Gursewak Singh, both serving life terms for murder, on June 22. They had attacked him with iron rods, killing him almost instantly.
Family members claim that they have suffered enough politics over Bittu’s death and they are sure that the real reasons “of the sponsored death of their sole bread earner will never come out”.
“He was murdered by two men inside a jail managed by the government. Till date, the government and the SIT have not identified the real culprits behind the murder in a high-security prison. Because he was a dera follower, no one wants the real reasons to come out,” a relative said.
Bittu’s son Reminder Pal also refused to talk, claiming that they might never know the reasons why his father – owner of a bakery in Faridkot — was murdered. “I do not want to get into limelight again. We have suffered a lot. My father was murdered and no one knows why. No action has been taken against any jail officer till date,” he said.
Bittu’s last rites were performed after hectic parleys ended the stalemate between the sect followers and the district authorities over the killing. Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh had ordered a SIT, headed by Ishwar Singh, ADGP Law & Order, to ascertain the conspiracy, if any, in Bittu’s killings by prison inmates.
The police have now presented a challan against four accused — Gursewak Singh, Maninder Singh, Jaspreet Singh and Lakhbir Singh Lakha — under Section 302 of the IPC, while Harpreet Singh was given a clan chit. “The investigations say that the accused murdered Bittu for his involvement in Bargari sacrilege case. The probe is over in the case,” Nabha DSP Rajesh Chibber said.
