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Ex-forest guard among 14 booked for killing 3 in Gurdaspur village clash
Gurdaspur police have booked 14 persons, including a retired forest guard, for allegedly killing three persons in a clash that took place at Phulara village over a land dispute on Monday.
The Gurdaspur police have booked 14 persons, including a retired forest guard, for allegedly killing three persons in a clash that took place at Phulara village over a land dispute on Monday. The husband of a Congress sarpanch was among those killed. However, no arrests have been made yet.
On the complaint of Phulra sarpanch Lovely Devi, the police registered an FIR under Sections 302 (murder), 148 (rioting, being armed with a deadly weapon), 149 (unlawful assembly) of the IPC and Section 25 of the Arms Act at the Bhaini Mian Khan Police station.
Gurdaspur SSP Harjit Singh said, “The main accused Nirmal Singh is a retired forest guard of the Punjab forest department and belongs to Kherabad village of Hoshiarpur district. Since he was injured, he is under treatment in a Jalandhar hospital. Seven other accused are his relatives.”
One person from the other side was also killed during the clash over possession of the land. “Since nobody has recorded a statement from the other side, no cross FIR has been registered yet,” he added.
Kulwinder Singh, assistant sub-inspector (ASI), said no arrests had been made yet and the investigation was on. He said Nirmal is seriously injured.
“It’s been 24 hours since Sukhraj Singh has been killed, but no culprit has been arrested by the police yet. The government and officials are doing nothing to take action against the culprits who ruined three families,” said Lovely Devi.
After getting assurance from the police, the kin got ready to cremate the body.
Police played a mute spectator: Sidhu
The rift among Congress leaders again came to the fore on Tuesday as former Punjab Congress president Navjot Singh Sidhu and Qadian MLA Partap Singh Bajwa visited the village to meet the grieving families separately.
While Bajwa visited the families in the morning, Sidhu met them in the afternoon. Former Congress MLAs Ashwani Sekhri, Sukhwinder Singh Danny Bandala, Sunil Dutti and Navtej Singh Cheema accompanied Sidhu.
“Visited Phulra village, Gurdaspur, where three people were attacked and allegedly murdered at their farm. The attackers were a group of 50 people led by Nirmal Singh, a former forest guard. They were accompanied by the police, which played a mute spectator to this barbaric act,” said Sidhu in a tweet.
He said, “False reporting by the police. The fact is that the sarpanch fired in self-defense when more than 50 people facilitated by the police came to occupy his land. The Congress demands immediate arrest of culprits, compensation of ₹1 crore and a government job for victims’ kin,”
However, the SSP said the police could not be blamed. “The police were also on the way to the place of the clash to prevent it, but it could not reach there timely despite efforts”.
