Cable operator suicide: Jaswinder’s widow, son give clean chit to Fastway Cables

The suicide case of cable operator Jaswinder Singh Jassi took a new turn when the widow of the cable operator, Balbir Kaur and her son, Brahmjot Singh, ruled out any “foul play” in his death and also gave a clean chit to Fastway Cables, the company that controls the cable transmission business in Punjab.

The suicide case of cable operator Jaswinder Singh Jassi took a new turn when the widow of the cable operator, Balbir Kaur and her son, Brahmjot Singh, ruled out any “foul play” in his death and also gave a clean chit to Fastway Cables, the company that controls the cable transmission business in Punjab.

Both the mother and son recorded their statements separately before a local judicial magistrate on Monday under Section 164 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC). The two statements bearing the signatures of the mother and son were handed over to the special investigation team (SIT).

‘JASSI’S BUSINESS WAS RUNNING WELL’

In her statement, Balbir Kaur claimed that her husband’s cable business was “running well”. This was in contradiction with the claims made by Jassi in his suicide note wherein he had blamed Fastway Cables managing director (MD) Gurdip Singh and three others for having ruined his cable business as a result of which he had incurred heavy losses. In his suicide note, Jassi had alleged that he was being harassed ever since he became a witness in the 2003 “Siti Cable sex scandal” in which the main accused was Sarabjit Singh Raju, in charge of the Fastway operations in the Amritsar region. Besides Raju, he had named his one-time business partner, Prithpal Singh Lalli, and another Gurinder Singh Babbi as his tormentors.

WAS A LION-HEARTED PERSON: BALBIR

In her statement, Balbir Kaur described her husband as “sher dil” (lion hearted) who could never think of ending his life. “On March 28, he went to the conference (TDSAT) and to put pressure on the judges who were present there, he consumed poison. His intention was never to commit suicide but was to draw the attention of the judges and pressure them to listen to his grievances,” said Balbir.

“We suspect no one and it did not happen due to some particular reason. My husband had a healthy breakfast and went to the conference. Everything (suicide) that happened thereafter was not due to anyone and it just happened on the spur of the moment,” she said while pointing out that her husband was a cheerful person and was not under any tension. Jassi’s son Brahmjot Singh also spoke on similar lines saying: “My father was into the cable business and was a cheerful person. He was not the type of person who could commit suicide. All this happened all of a sudden. We have not blamed anyone.”

CONTRADICTORY VERSIONS

The statement of Jassi’s wife is in contrast to her earlier statements made before the media soon after her husband died in a hospital two days after he had consumed pesticide. She had squarely blamed Raju, Lalli and Babbi for being responsible of ruining her husband’s cable business and forcing him to commit suicide.

In her statement at the time of registration of the case under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), she had blamed the trio. However, her statement to the magistrate is contradictory to her earlier views.

Police commissioner Jatinder Singh Aulakh had then stated that a first information report (FIR) was lodged on the bases of the suicide note. The victim had flashed a suicide note in front of the judges at the meeting of the Telecom and Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT). Thereafter, he consumed the pesticide and collapsed in front of the judges and several others, including a number of cable operators of the city. Among the judges present were justice Aftab Alam (retd), chairperson TDSAT, justice SK Mittal of the supreme court and justice Adarsh Kumar Goel of the high court. Local judicial officers were also present at the TDSAT meeting. The judges had given their consent for having their statements recorded in the suicide case, but these have not been recorded to date by SIT.

The SIT members included deputy commissioner of police Harjinder Singh, assistant commissioner of police Harjit Singh Dhaliwal, additional deputy commissioner of police Harjit Singh Brar and SHO Sukhwinder Singh Randhawa.