Khalsa suicide case: Investigating officer says family hasn’t provided any evidence
KURUKSHETRA: More than oneand-a-half month after Kurukshetra deputy commissioner (DC) ordered a magisterial inquiry into the death of Sikh activist Gurbaksh Singh Khalsa, nobody has so far reached the investigation officer to provide evidence to prove the alleged role of police in provoking Khalsa to jump off a water tank and commit suicide on March 20 in his native Thaska Ali village.
The Shahbad SDM, who is the investigating officer in the case, had also issued a statement in the media asking for any evidence related to the case, but failed to get a response.
Talking to Hindustan Times, the SDM said, “As of now, nobody has come up with evidence to prove it a murder case and involvement of cops as alleged by Khalsa’s family members. Due to the absence family’s response, I had also written to the local police about their findings in the case.”
When asked when the inquiry will be completed as the deputy commissioner did not fix any deadline to submit the report, he said, “it will take time as it is a long process”.
On the other hand, Khalsa’s family members said that the investigation officer should have approached them for evidence and not other way around.
“We have enough evidence and video recordings to prove that the cops provoked him to jump off the water tank, but nobody has sought the evidence from us,” Khalsa’s brother Jarnail Singh said.
On a statement issued by the judicial magistrate in newspapers seeking evidence from them, Jarnail, who is also the complainant in the case, said, “We did not read any report but they should have come to us. Even officials of the crime branch, who are conducting another inquiry in the case related to the involvement of cops, had recently visited us and spent about four-five hours in our village to collect the evidence.”
On April 2 this year, the Kurukshetra district administration had officially ordered a magisterial inquiry into Khalsa’s death.
Khalsa, had allegedly committed suicide demanding release of Sikh prisoners, who had already completed their jail-term but still lodged in the various jails of the country.
Family members of Khalsa and Sikh hardliners from Punjab held a six-day protest at Thaska Ali village demanding action against the police officials accused them of provoking Khalsa to commit suicide and they agreed to cremate his body after state government agreed to accept their demands and BJP’s Assandh MLA Bakshish Singh Virk gave them assurance to fulfil their demands of suspension of two SHOs and registration of an FIR under Section 306 of the IPC against them.
However, the police officials said that action against the cops will be taken as per the investigation report.