Relatives, village heads from Punjab vouch for innocence of those booked
PANCHKULA: A day after Panchkula police booked around 800 people under various sections, including attempt to murder and outraging religious sentiments of the IPC, local leaders from Sirsa, Bathinda, Malerkotla and Patiala thronged the Sector-5 police station.
All of them vouched for residents of their area and were seen arguing with SHO Karambir Singh that they were innocent.
Jagdish Singh, a sarpanch from Kauli village, Patiala district said, “Three people from my village have been booked. They are not even dera followers and went to Panchkula with friends for the sake of fun.”
Malkiat Singh from Bathinda claimed that five of his acquaintances had been booked wrongly. “People who led the mob are still out, but innocents have been jailed. We will appeal in the high court,” he claimed.
Paira Singh, a government employee from Malerkotla, whose son Harjinder Singh, 23, was booked said, “My son is under treatment for epilepsy. I showed the reports to the SHO to no avail.”
Vikas Bansal, of Bathinda, whose brother-in-law Avneesh Garg, is also booked, said, “We did not even know that he was in Panchkula. He has no role to play as he is a journalist in Jaipur.”
500 FOLLOWERS FROM UTTARAKHAND LEFT AFTER VERDICT
Sources say that among the followers who had gathered in the city, there was also a group of 500 people from Uttarakhand. This included 200 women from Bazpur city.
They came in three buses and other private vehicles and left the venue immediately after the verdict.
There are around 10,000 followers of the dera chief in district Udham Singh Nagar of Uttarakhand. Last year, he had even visited Bazpur to address his followers.