Balachaur granthi’s death was murder, not mishap: Police

2ND CASE IN PAST 2 MONTHS IN WHICH POLICE HAVE ADDED MURDER CHARGE TO FIR; ACCUSED HELD FOR KILLING EX-SCRIBE ON MAY 10 CONFESSES TO HAVING KILLED THE GRANTHI ON MARCH 21

SBS NAGAR : Two months after a granthi, Jasbir Singh, was found lying dead on the Balachaur-Rahon road with his scooter by his side, police have added murder charges to the First-Information Report (FIR), instead of treating it as an accident case. The police move comes after two of six accused in the murder case of former scribe, Sanpreet Mangat, of Rahon on May 10, confessed to killing the granthi with robbery as motive. SBS Nagar CIA in-charge inspector Dalbir Singh Sidhu had conducted the interrogation. The post-mortem report also points to the fact that the granthi was murdered.

Initially, the police were treating Mangat’s death as accident too and registered a case under these sections at the Rahon police station. Murder charges were added and the accused arrested, following the post-mortem report that did not back police theory, and senior officers’ intervention.

Sources said it was a major lapse on the part of the police to treat two murders as accidents first and to add these sections to the FIRs only later. In their defence, police officials claim that they had always feared something was amiss and thus they got a post-mortem conducted from a medical board.

A police official claimed, on condition of anonymity, “In the granthi’s case that was reported on March 21, the investigation was delayed due to the imposition of the lockdown.” In both the deaths, the initial case was registered under Sections 279 (rash or negligent driving on a public way) and 304-A (death due to negligence) of the IPC.