Woman paraded atop jeep: 12 Amritsar cops booked

Police had earlier denied the charges and accused the woman and her relatives of attacking a team of cops that had gone to look for her fatherinlaw

As there was a crosscomplaint, names of accused (earlier unidentified) who were part of raiding party have been added to the case.

PARAMPAL SINGH, SSP rural

Police have added names of 12 cops, including two inspectors and three assistant sub-inspectors (ASI), in the cross-FIR registered on September 26 on a complaint from a 32-year-old woman, Jaswinder Kaur. Kaur had claimed that a police team had forced her to sit atop a jeep and paraded her through her village, Shahzada, 26km from district headquarters, falling under Kathunangal police station, on September 25.

However, police had denied the charges, accusing Kaur and her relatives of attacking their team.

The accused cops are inspectors Palwinder Singh and Ravinder Singh of crime branch, ASI Manohar Singh and head constable Balwinder Singh of rural police Amritsar, ASI Narain Singh of PAP Jalandhar, ASI Sukhdev Singh, head constables Resham Singh, Gurdeep Singh, Daljit Singh, and constables Prabhjot Singh, Tejinder Singh and Avtar Singh (all of the organised crime control unit).

A video of Kaur falling off a speeding police vehicle in the Majitha area of Amritsar district had surfaced on social media platforms on September 26. Kaur had sustained wrist and head injuries.

A day before the video was circulated, police had booked seven persons, including the woman, under section 307 (attempt to murder) of the IPC. The accused cops had gone to the village to look for the woman’s father-inlaw, Balwinder Singh, who was booked in a case last year.

Following the woman’s statement, police had registered a case under section 323 (voluntarily causing hurt) and had added section 325 (voluntarily causing grievous hurt) of the IPC against unidentified men. The case was registered based on the medicolegal report of the woman.

Senior superintendent of police (SSP-rural) Parampal Singh said as there was a crossFIR, the names of the accused (earlier unidentified) involved in the raiding party had been added to the FIR.

On September 27, the family and relatives of Kaur had staged a dharna outside the Kathunangal police station seeking the addition of names of the erring cops.

On Friday, the Punjab and Haryana high court had issued notice to the Punjab director general of police and the state government on a petition seeking a probe by a special investigation team (SIT) into the case.

“Our investigation is on and more charges will be included in the FIR after the probe is completed,” the SSP added.