6 booked for thwarting Sampla’s bid to meet family
BATHINDA: Six farmer union leaders were booked by Mansa police under the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act after they didn’t let the chairperson of National Commission for Scheduled Castes (NCSC), Vijay Sampla, enter Fafre Bhai Ke village on Friday.
Sampla was scheduled to meet a Dalit family that had lost a 20-year-old member, Manpreet Singh, on May 23 allegedly because of police torture. A first information report (FIR) was lodged on Friday at Bhikhi police station against the villagers on the complaint of deceased’s uncle Diwan Singh.
In his complaint, Diwan said Sampla wanted to meet the aggrieved mother and record statements of the family members. However, more than 200 villagers led by Sadhu Singh, Balam Singh, Jagtar Singh and three others named as accused blocked all entry points to the village to prevent Sampla from reaching the family, reads the complaint.
Earlier on Friday, farmer leader Iqbal Singh told reporters that the village had passed a unanimous resolution to prevent Sampla from entering the village for he was a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader.
Though Sampla avoided visiting the Fafre Bhai Ke village, he camped at Mansa city police lines and called the aggrieved family there. Sampla said the accused villagers interfered in the functioning of a constitutional institution.
Sampla said a postmortem reported presented before the commission states that the deceased had 23 injuries. “The SHO should have been suspended earlier. Police probe will clear air on who all were involved in torturing Manpreet,” said Sampla.
The NCSC chief directed Mansa deputy commissioner to releases an interim grant of ₹4.12 lakh under the victim compensation scheme by Tuesday and extend financial assistance to victim’s mother to construct a house on a plot owned by the family.
Sampla said the deceased’s younger brother will be eligible for a government job at attaining adulthood.
SHO booked, suspended Following the intervention of NCSC, the Mansa police booked the Budhlada station house officer (SHO) Surjan Singh under Section 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) of the IPC and SC/ST Act.
Mansa SSP Surendra Lamba confirmed that Surjan Singh was placed under suspension and investigation is on.
Following a petty quarrel with his neighbours in Budhlada, the police authorities summoned Manpreet to the police station on May 23 night. The aggrieved family alleged Manpreet was badly thrashed by the police and he died within hours of release from the custody.