HC notice to govt on petitions seeking quashing of 2018 FIR

CHANDIGARH: The Punjab and Haryana high court on Wednesday put Punjab government on notice on pleas seeking quashing of 2018 first information report (FIR) for Kotkapura violence.

The high court bench of justice Sudhir Mittal has sought the government’s response by April 1.

The petitions have been filed by head constable Rashpal Singh, now retired, who suffered injuries in the clashes and subinspector Gurdeep Singh, named as accused in Kotkapura firing incident. The petitions also demand transfer of the probe into the 2015 first information report (FIR) to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

They have claimed that the challan filed in 2018 FIR reveals that it has been filed by special investigation team (SIT) member Kunwar Vijay Pratap alone and the other four members have given their dissent.

The injured policemen have been left as mute spectators in the political fight between the two regimes and SIT is hell-bent to implicate senior police officials by conducting investigating in a biased manner and also by suppressing real facts from the court, the plea alleges.

The petitioners argued that the August 7, 2018, FIR for the same incident where an FIR stood registered in October 2015 is patently illegal as Ajit Singh, who is complainant in latest FIR, never made a complaint to the police.

The registration of the impugned FIR is against the settled principles in view of Supreme Court observations that a second FIR in respect of an offence or different offence committed in the course of same transaction is impermissible, they have argued.