DSP, three accused cops record statements before Punjab women commission

AMRITSAR : A week after the incident in which a woman, Jaswinder Kaur of Shehzada village, received injuries after falling from the roof of a speeding police jeep in Majitha area of Amritsar, four cops of crime branch were presented before the Punjab women commission in Chandigarh on Thursday.

The four policemen are deputy superintendent of police (DSP) Lakhwinder Singh, inspectors Palwinder Singh and Ravinder Singh, and constable Daljit Singh, who was driving the jeep.

The women commission recorded the policemen’s statements in which they said that they were being ‘falsely implicated’. They also presented ‘evidences’ before the commission in which they claimed that the woman sat on the jeep by her will.

Talking to HT, the commission’s chairperson, Manisha Gulati, said, “The policemen presented photographic evidence in which it was seen that the woman confidently sat atop the jeep.

The policemen told us that they were attacked by the woman and her relatives, and they had to flee from the spot for saving their lives. The cops claimed that the driver of the jeep didn’t even know that the woman sat atop his jeep.”

“I have recoded the statements of the cops and the case will be heard in the Punjab and Haryana High Court on October 9,” she said.

She further said that the police team did not take any woman police personnel along to conduct a raid in the woman’s house. “In this regard, the policemen failed to give an appropriate reply,” she added.

A video of Kaur falling off a speeding police vehicle 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 Indian Penal Code (IPC). The accused policemen had gone to the village to look for the

woman’s father-in-law, Balwinder Singh, who was booked in a case last year.

Following the woman’s statement, police had registered a cross-case under section 323 (voluntarily causing hurt) and had added section 325 (voluntarily causing grievous hurt) of the IPC against 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).