E-Paper
Add kidnapping section against Randhawa’s son: PU student to Chandigarh Police
Addressing the media in Chandigarh, the PU student shared a video, accusing Randhawa’s son of assaulting him outside the hotel with his security officers
Six days after Chandigarh Police registered cross FIRs after a brawl between former Punjab Congress minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa’s son and a Panjab University (PU) student at Hyatt Centric Hotel in Sector 17, the latter shared a video with the media, accusing the former of assaulting him outside the hotel with his security officers.
Holding a press conference at Chandigarh Press Club on Wednesday, PU law student Narveer Singh Gill demanded that kidnapping sections be added in the FIR against Randhawa’s son Udayveer Singh lodged after the brawl on August 23.
In the video, whose authenticity could not be verified, a person can be seen crouching on the floor with his head down. A security personnel is pinning him down, while the person recording him, is repeatedly kicking him in the head, even after being stopped by the security person.
Narveer alleged that the man being attacked in the video was him, while the assaulter was Udayveer, though his face is not seen in the video.
Narveer claimed that he had handed over the video to the Chandigarh SSP two days after the attack.
“While assaulting me, Udayveer himself shot the video to humiliate me. While I was fleeing to safety after the scuffle at the hotel, Randhawa’s gunman caught me, after which Udayveer again assaulted me and threw me in his car. Therefore, police should add kidnapping section against him,” Narveer said.
Narveer also slammed former Punjab cabinet minister and state Congress chief Amrinder Singh Raja Warring for “supporting Udayveer’s actions”, while addressing a protest in Ferozepur.
“Warring should have rather snubbed Udayveer for misusing his father’s influence and thrashing students. Instead, he patted his back for assaulting me,” Narveer said.
He tossed my turban, provoked me: Udayveer
Meanwhile, responding to the allegations, Udayveer said that it was his sister’s birthday on August 23 and he, along with his family, were at the hotel since 8 pm. An entire section of Koyo Koyo restaurant was reserved by his family for their private function.
“Narveer came to the restaurant at 10.30 pm. While I was in the toilet, he pounced on me from behind and grabbed my neck. When I turned around, he knocked off my turban and tried to escape from the washroom, but I grabbed his T-shirt. In the process of nabbing him again and taking him to the Sector 17 police station, I got injured,” Udayveer alleged.
He added that while the scuffle broke out in the restaurant, his relatives informed the police control room (PCR), but by the time a PCR vehicle reached the hotel, he had already taken Narveer to the police station.
“It is disheartening to see how a scuffle between two people, which is being investigated by police, has taken a political turn. The CCTV footage at the restaurant shows that I came out of the toilet with my turban in my hand. I did what any self-respecting Sikh would do when someone lays hands on his turban,” he said.
While Udayveer was booked under Sections 341(wrongful restraint) and 323 (voluntarily causing hurt) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), Narveer, a resident of Phase 3B2, Mohali, along with these two sections, was also booked for criminal intimidation (Section 506) by the Sector 17 police.
