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Ajnala police station attack: HC dismisses bail pleas of 3 Waris Punjab De associates
On February 23, a mob led by Waris Punjab De chief Amritpal Singh attacked the police station. The mob turned violent and besides, inflicting injuries to senior police officials, up to the rank of superintendent of police, with sharp-edged weapons, the mob also vandalised the government property.
The Punjab and Haryana high court has dismissed the bail plea of three accused in the February 23 incident of a mob affiliated to Waris Punjab De attacking a police station in Ajnala to free one of their associate from custody.
“The ‘show of strength’ by mobsters herein, thereby leading to the present violent act, depicts that the mobsters, including the petitioner, consider themselves above the “Rule of Law” and throw challenge to the sovereignty and integrity of the state. Besides this, they also exhibit their future intentions to take law into their own hands, just to achieve their own sense of justice, if they disconcur with any act of government authority(ies) established under law,” the bench of justice Kuldeep Tiwari observed adding that the incident has “shocked the conscience of the entire nation”, where an unlawful mob, carried out the attack to release one of their associates.
On February 23, a mob led by Waris Punjab De chief Amritpal Singh attacked the police station. The mob turned violent and besides, inflicting injuries to senior police officials, up to the rank of superintendent of police, with sharp-edged weapons, the mob also vandalised the government property.
The plea was from three accused, Harmail Singh Jodhe, Jagdish Singh and Parshotam Singh.
They had moved the court seeking bail on the premise, that they had been falsely entangled in the FIR at the behest of the ruling party, with a malafide intention, to build a criminal record against them and Amritpal Singh.
The court recorded that it is evident from the record that the mob targeted many officials of Punjab Police, including a superintendent of police, who had suffered an injury on his head with a sharp-edged weapon, resulting in his receiving 14 stitches on his head.
It also took note of the fact that subsequent to this, the National Security Act, has been invoked against Amritpal Singh, and many of the accused in the present FIR and shifted outside the state.
The bench further recorded that considering the evidence collected by the police, it would be a “travesty of justice”, if, despite grave allegations, they are enlarged on bail. The court underlined that this case needs to be dealt with in a realistic manner and with the sensitivity which it deserves, else the faith of the common man, in the law-dispensing agencies, would “erode”. “Considering …especially the surge in violent incidents, specially against the state functionaries, by mobs, which indeed pose threat not only to social fabric of the society, but also to the law enforcement agencies, this court finds no merit in the instant petition and is impelled to dismiss the same,” the bench said adding that the case brings to “full glare the antagonist state of affairs prevailing in the State of Punjab”, therefore, this court cannot “abdicate its constitutional role and turn a blind eye to the suffering of the common man”.