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Behbal Kalan firing: Victim’s brother writes to CJI, seeks protection to witnesses citing threat
The brother of Kishan Bhagwan Singh, one of those who died in the 2015 Behbal Kalan police firing incident, has written a letter to Chief Justice of India (CJI) Sharad Arvind Bobde seeking police protection to all the witnesses in the case, claiming threat to their lives.
The brother of Kishan Bhagwan Singh, one of those who died in the 2015 Behbal Kalan police firing incident, has written a letter to Chief Justice of India (CJI) Sharad Arvind Bobde seeking police protection to all the witnesses in the case, claiming threat to their lives.
Resham Singh, also a witness in the case, in his letter said he has lost hope of the Punjab government providing justice to the victims’ families as it is only doing politics on the sacrilege and firing incidents.
He has also marked a copy of the letter to the chief justice of Punjab and Haryana High Court.
“I was the first to file a complaint in a Faridkot court in February 2017 demanding action against those responsible for the firing incident. The present government formed a special investigation team (SIT) to probe firing incidents and I recorded my statement before it,” he said.
He also demanded that the courts should conduct an independent probe into an FIR (number 130) registered in October 2015 at the Bajakhana police station after the firing episode.
He claimed that then Moga senior superintendent of police (SSP) Charanjit Singh Sharma, SP Bikramjit Singh, inspector Pradeep Singh, DSP Harinder Singh Gill, additional deputy commissioner of police (ADCP) Paramjit Singh Pannu, DSP Tejveer Singh, inspectors Manjinder Singh Bedi, Sandeep Wadhera and Dalvir Singh besides a police team from Ludhiana opened fire at the Sikh protestors in front of him. All these officers were named in the FIR registered in 2015 during the Shiromani Akali Dal-Bharatiya Janata Party (SAD-BJP) government, he added.
He alleged that under political pressure the present SIT team removed the names of DSP Harinder Gill and ADCP Paramjit Singh Pannu from the case as they are relatives of associates of cabinet minister Tript Rajinder Singh Bajwa.
He also alleged that the person at whose residence a police gypsy was taken to fabricate evidence and the other man whose weapon was used to make fabricated bullets marks on the vehicle were not named as accused in the case.
Talking to HT, Resham said in 2018 he was attacked for being a witness in the case. “A case was registered in this regard, but no action was taken. Another witness, Surjit Singh (now dead) was also attacked at that time. I suspect that Surjit was attacked on the directions of political leaders who want to save accused police officers,” he added.
Minister Bajwa said he has no relation with any of the person(s) involved in the firing case. “The court should conduct a probe. I am ready to be part of it,” he added.
