SIT gets IG’s 4-day custody to find who ‘ordered firing’
A Faridkot court on Tuesday sent inspector general of police (IGP) Paramraj Singh Umranangal to four-day remand of the special investigation team (SIT) in connection with the 2015 police firing at Kotkapura .
Umranangal was arrested in the case from the Punjab Police headquarters in Chandigarh on Monday. The SIT told the court that it needed his custody to find out who gave him the orders to fire on anti-sacrilege protesters at Kotkapura on October 14, 2015 even as the then Kotkapura subdivisional magistrate (SDM) only gave instructions to fire in the air.
The SIT said it has found in its probe that several phones calls were made between Umranangal, the then Ludhiana police commissioner, and the then director general of police (DGP) Sumedh Singh Saini. Umranangal was leading the force at Kotkapura and has been misleading their team despite being given several opportunities, the SIT said. It has probed the chain of sequences and unearthed the firing conspiracy, it added.
The IG was sent to the Faridkot sadar police station where he will kept in lock-up. The defence counsel argued in the court that SIT wanted the IG’s remand for more time to probe the role of the former DGP and then chief minister Parkash Singh Badal which shows its probe has been done at the behest of the present government to settle political scores. In the Kotkapura incident, a case was registered on August 7, 2018, under Sections 307 (attempt to murder), 323 (causing hurt), 341 (wrongful restraint), of the Indian Penal Code and sections of the Arms Act against unidentified cops.
Later, the SIT added more sections, including 120-B (criminal conspiracy), 201 (causing disappearance of evidence or giving false information) and 218 (public servant framing incorrect record) of the IPC were added in the cases, Section 34 (done by several persons in furtherance of common intention) in the case.
FORMER FAZILKA SP, INSPECTOR JOIN PROBE
Former Fazilka superintendent of police (SP detective) Bikramjit Singh and inspector Pardeep Singh, accused in the Behbal Kalan firing case, have joined SIT probe, it was learnt. The Punjab and Haryana high court recently ordered stay on their arrest and recorded their statements. The HC will hear the anticipatory bail application filed by sub-inspector (SI) and then Bajakhana SHO Amarjit Singh on Wednesday.