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Will form panel of lawyers to ensure justice: Sukhbir to Kaunke’s family
Sukhbir talked to the family members, including Kaunke’s son Hari Singh and wife Gurdev Kaur. He assured the family that the SAD and SGPC would extend all possible help to them. He said a panel of lawyers would be constituted to launch a legal battle to ensure punishment for all the accused.
Former deputy chief minister and Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president Sukhbir Singh Badal visited the family of Akal Takht former acting jathedar Gurdev Singh Kaunke along with Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) president Harjinder Singh Dhami on Friday.
Sukhbir talked to the family members, including Kaunke’s son Hari Singh and wife Gurdev Kaur. He assured the family that the SAD and SGPC would extend all possible help to them. He said a panel of lawyers would be constituted to launch a legal battle to ensure punishment for all the accused.
A committee constituted by the SGPC to assist the family in securing justice for the alleged kidnapping, torture and eventual murder of Kaunke by the police during the tenure of Congress chief minister Beant Singh also accompanied the SAD president. Kaunke was allegedly killed in police custody in December 1992. They visited the family at their residence in Kaunke village.
Meanwhile, the Kaunke family thanked the SAD president for extending support to them. Senior leaders, including Balwinder Singh Bhundar, Dr Daljeet Cheema, Maheshinder Singh Grewal, Hira Singh Gabria, Sharanjit Singh Dhillon, Gurcharan Grewal, Virsa Singh Valtoha, Bhagwant Singh Sialka, SR Kler and Sunny Gill accompanied the SAD president.
Recently, the Punjab Human Rights Organisation claimed to have made public the 1999 police report by the then ADGP (security) BP Tiwari in the case of Kaunke’s ‘disappearance’.
Kaunke was appointed as an acting jathedar with the support of pro-Khalistan groups during a ‘Sarbat Khalsa’ (grand Sikh assembly) held on January 26, 1986, when militancy was at its peak in Punjab.
