Takht jathedar visits injured in hospital, Cong slams politics
PATIALA:EVEN as an assistant subinspector (ASI) has been booked in a case of alleged torture of seven men by the Sanaur police on Sunday, politics has taken over the issue with the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) and the Congress trading barbs and accusations.
On Thursday, the local SAD leadership, including MLA Sanaur Harinderpal Singh Chandumajra, accompanied Akal Takht jathedar Gurbachan Singh to visit the injured, Amandeep, at Government Rajindra Hospital.
At the hospital, the jathedar said, “The SGCP has formed a four-member inquiry panel that will submit its report and then we will decide the future course of action.” Incidentally, deputy commissioner Kumar Amit has already ordered a magisterial probe into the case.
Upping the ante even further, MLA Chandumajra announced a Sanaur bandh on August 11 (Saturday) and the holding of a rally outside chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh’s residence the same day. On Thursday, they held a protest opposite the Sanaur police station.
“It’s a shocking incident. The SAD will not tolerate any type of repression. The ASI could not have thrashed those boys singlehandedly. A few other officials were also involved and they must be punished,” Chandumajra said.
“The boy was fine and was to be discharged in the morning, but he insisted that he will stay. Later in the day, these politicians started visiting him. It’s all politics. The patient had no grievous injury and there was no sign of any sexual assault,” said a doctor privy to the medical report of Amandeep.
The victim’s mother has been demanding a job and compensation from the government, in addition to strict punishment for the guilty. On Wednesday, former Union minister Preneet kaur had visited the family.
SINISTER DESIGN OF SAD: CONGRESS
In response to the SAD and the SGPC, Congress leader Harinderpal Singh Harry Mann said, “I condemn the incident, but more condemnable is the politics which the Chandumajra family is playing over the issue. The Chandumajra family is using the SGPC for its personal political motives.”
He added, “The Akal Takht jathedar should have refrained from being part of this sinister design of local SAD leaders. I want to know that why did the jathedar not visit Bargari, where Sikhs were killed for protesting against sacrilege incidents. Even now, who has stopped the jathedar from visiting people sitting on protest in Bargari.”
He added that in this, a torture case, the police had booked the erring ASI by name and also marked a magisterial probe, but Chandumajra needed to explain that why no such FIR was registered by name against erring police officials, who had fired on Sikhs at Bargari.