Kin raise questions over police version

GURDASPUR : Family of Samuel Masih alias Sunny Masih, 22, who was killed in an encounter by Mohali police early on Saturday, met Gurdaspur SSP Sawarandeep Singh and claimed that their son was innocent. The Mohali police have claimed that he was a wanted criminal.

Talking to media outside the SSP’S office here, Masih’s father Sucha Masih said that “not even a single case was registered against him”. Demanding a probe, he asked, “How have the Mohali police termed my son a ‘wanted criminal’ and ‘gangster’, when he did not have any criminal record? Only to justify their fake encounter, the police are cooking up baseless stories.”

Masih left home on July 11 as he got a job in a toll plaza office somewhere near New Delhi and since then they had been continuously in touch with him on phone, said Sucha Masih.

As news of the encounter reached Gurdaspur, a team of police went to his house at Deedowal village and informed the family. His paternal uncle, Yousuf Masih, a local Congress leader who is sarpanch of the village, said he had also brought the matter to the notice of local MLA and minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa, “who said he will discuss the matter with the DGP.”

Gurdaspur SSP Sawarandeep Singh confirmed the claims of the family that no criminal case was pending against him in the district. “Only the Mohali police can clarify why they termed him a ‘wanted criminal’,” he added.

Mohali SSP Kuldeep Singh said a case under section 379 (theft) and 411 of the IPC and the Arms Act was registered against Masih at Nagrota in HP, while a case under sections 399 and 402 of the IPC was registered at the Kalanaur police station against Sunny’s companion Goldy Masih, who was arrested by the police.