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Magisterial probe ordered into 40-year-old alleged carjacker’s death in police encounter at Amritsar
The district administration in Amritsar has ordered a magisterial inquiry into the death of a 40-year-old alleged car snatcher in a police encounter on the Amritsar-Delhi
The district administration in Amritsar has ordered a magisterial inquiry into the death of a 40-year-old alleged car snatcher in a police encounter on the Amritsar-Delhi national highway near Manawala village on Tuesday night.
Inderjit Singh, a resident of Hoshiarpur who was accused of snatching an SUV in Haryana, succumbed to the bullet injuries at Guru Nanak Dev Hospital the same night.
Sub-divisional magistrate (Amritsar-1) Vikas Hira on Thursday initiated the probe on the directions of deputy commissioner Gurpreet Singh Khaira after the victim’s family termed the incident as “a fake encounter”.
On Tuesday evening, the Amritsar commssionerate police’s crime investigation agency (CIA) unit had set up a checkpoint near the Manawala toll plaza which is under the jurisdiction of the rural police.
The CIA team claimed to have got information from the Haryana Police that Inderjit was coming towards Amritsar after snatching a Toyota Fortuner in Ambala. The barricading was done without informing the rural police, it is learnt.
The CIA unit members claimed that they opened the fire to save their lives after Inderjit tried to run over them with the SUV.
The post-mortem on the 40-year-old’s body was conducted on Thursday by a board of three doctors at Amritsar civil hospital under SDM Hira’s supervision.
“I have started the probe. The report will be submitted within three months,” the SDM said.
Deputy superintendent of police (DSP), Jandiala, Sukhwinderpal Singh, under whose jurisdiction the incident took place, said, “Senior superintendent of police (SSP) Dhruv Dahiya had written to the DC who then ordered to conduct a magisterial probe. The SDM also visited the crime spot.”
“Efforts are on to collect the footage of the closed circuit television (CCTV) cameras installed at the toll plaza. So far, the victim’s family has not lodged a complaint against the policemen involved in the firing,” he added.
On Thursday morning, the family wrote to the SDM demanding that the SUV, CCTV footage from the toll plaza be preserved besides conducting videography of the autopsy.
Inderjit’s brother Maninderpal Singh said, “A case of murder should be registered against the guilty cops. Two bullets were pumped into my brother’s body. While the police claim they fired at the SUV’s tyres to stop it, there is no sign of bullets on the tyres. It appears they fired at my brother with an intention to kill him.”
Maninderpal claimed that some passersby shot the video of the incident, but the cops got the clips deleted forcibly. “As per the eyewitnesses, they CIA team fired at least six rounds. It was a planned murder,” he said.
Inderjit, who worked as a driver for nearly a year after having returned from abroad, is survived by his wife, mother and two children.
