Culpable homicide charges slapped on two policemen
Case registered after kin refuse to cremate body, lift dharna
AMRITSAR: A day after a local Congress leader died in police custody, a head constable and constable were booked for culpable homicide on Monday.
Bittu Shah, 35, a resident of Guru Ram Das Nagar and president of the Congress’ scheduled cast (SC) wing from ward number 63, had died an hour after he was rounded up for questioning on Sunday.
A case was registered after hundreds of protesters, including kin of the deceased, refused to lift dharna from Sultanwind chowk demanding registration of ‘murder’ case against the policemen, who were identified as head constable Avtar Singh and constable Navjot Singh. Both are posted at the Gate Hakima police station.
On Monday morning, hundreds of protesters took Bittu’s body after a post-mortem was conducted at the civil hospital. They threatened not to conduct the last rites till a case was filed. Raising slogans against police, the protesters kept the body outside the B-Division police station. They were accompanied by a few Congress leaders, led by councillor Salinderjit Singh Shally.
Congress MLA from Amritsar’s south constituency, Inderbir Singh Bolaria, also visited the police station to pacify the protesters, but in vain.
Councillor Shally and protesters remained adamant about their demand of a case against the accused. During the protest, Shally and supporters of MLA Bolaria also got into a heated argument. Shally said, “Bittu was a good friend and thus I supported this protest. Supporters of an MLA got into a scuffle with me as they wanted us to lift the protest.”
On the matter, MLA Bolaria said, “I had already assured family members of the deceased that a case will be registered, but some politicians, including Shally, were instigating protesters.” “They were playing politics. There was no scuffle,” he claimed. He added that action should be taken against the mob which attacked the Gate Hakima police station.
High drama was witnessed at the police station on Sunday night when the angry mob, including kin of the deceased, hurled stones at the police station in which two cops were injured. The eight-hour protest was, however, lifted on Monday evening after the deputy commissioner of police (DCP, investigation) informed protesters that a case under Sections 304 (culpable homicide) and 341 (punishment for wrongful restraint) of the IPC was registered against the two accused policemen. The police have still not disclosed the case in which Bittu was rounded up.
THE CASE
Bittu was picked from his house by police when he intervened after a police team arrived in the locality to arrest someone else, his family had claimed . “The cops came around to arrest someone and unnecessarily took my uncle to the police station. They applied third degree torture on him,” deceased’s nephew Chand Bhatti had said.
Bittu’s wife Sapna said, “My husband had gone to the market. Someone from our locality informed me that police had taken away my husband. We tried to find him, but in vain. After sometime, we got a call from the Gate Hakima police station and were informed that his health had deteriorated. When we reached the police station, we took him to a private hospital where the doctors declared him brought dead.” She also alleged that the police applied third degree torture on her husband.