During the joint action committee meeting on the recent killing of brothers Harinder Singh and Jatinder Singh, the members threatened the police and the state government that they would move the Punjab and Haryana high court, if the special investigation team (SIT) tried to play games to favour the accused.
“We are waiting for the SIT report, which the police were to submit by October 17. We’ll wait till October 29. Tomorrow (on Monday), we’ll meet Jagraon SSP (senior superintendent of police) Ravcharan Singh Brar, who leads the SIT,” Sangrur parliamentarian Bhagwant Mann of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) said here on Sunday.
“If the slain brothers had criminal history, it did not give the police or the Akali leaders the license to kill them. If they were not arrested in the past four years, the police are at fault again,” said Mann. He was in Ludhiana on Sunday to attend meeting the joint action committee of various parties to seek justice for the slain brothers from Bhoapur village near here.
Mann accused the police and family of Akali leader Gurjit Singh of starting propaganda against the slain brothers that they had criminal history. “People question my decision to back the brothers but I do back them and their family. I have gone through their crime files, in which even cases of minor clash are written down as attempt to murder, which is not justified,” said the Sangrur MP.
{{/usCountry}}Mann accused the police and family of Akali leader Gurjit Singh of starting propaganda against the slain brothers that they had criminal history. “People question my decision to back the brothers but I do back them and their family. I have gone through their crime files, in which even cases of minor clash are written down as attempt to murder, which is not justified,” said the Sangrur MP.
{{/usCountry}}Mann said the reconstruction of the dilapidated house of the slain brothers was on, and some NRIs (non-resident Indians) had pooled money to support the family. State Congress spokesperson Sukhpal Singh Khaira, Jagdeep Singh of the People’s Party of Punjab, and Jatinderpal Singh of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) were at the meeting, besides the slain brothers’ parents and sister.
CPM leader and former legislator Tarsem Jodhan said the committee would also make people aware of the police-Akali nexus, and claimed that former Bharatiya Janata Party state minister Laxmi Kanta Chawla had agreed to support the committee, though she he had skipped the meeting because of other engagements.