Chandigarh/ Jalandhar (April 12, 2014): A Sikh youth named Jaspal Singh of Gurdaspur district was killed by Punjab police on March 29, 2012. Police had opened unwarrented gun fire against Sikhs who were holding a peaceful demonstration. Two years have passed but the justice remains denied in this case.
According to recent information the Punjab government, led by Shiromani Akali Dal (Badal) and BJP, has dropped the charges against Punjab Police Service officers Varinder Pal Singh and Manpreet Singh in a Jaspal Singh Gurdaspur’s case.
The information to this regard was reportedly submitted by principal secretary home affairs and justice SS Channy to the Punjab and Haryana high court on April 09.
The court was informed that the inquiry conducted by retired additional district and sessions judge BC Gupta had concluded that the charges levelled against Varinder Pal Singh, then senior superintendent of police at Gurdaspur, and Manpreet Singh, then deputy superintendent of police, Gurdaspur, were not found correct.
Though state inspector general of police (crime) G Nageshwara Rao, who is heading a special investigating team ( SIT) looking into the case, submitted a status report in a sealed cover, he further sought six weeks to complete the probe.
Granting six weeks more to the SIT, the court directed it that in case the chargesheet was filed by the next date of hearing, it be placed on record.
The FIR in the case, in which one Ranjit Singh was also injured in police firing, was registered on March 29, 2012, at Gurdaspur police station.
The case will come up for hearing in Punjab and Haryana High Court on April 24.
It may be recalled that Jaspal Singh, a B. Tech student, was fatally hit by an AK 47 bullet fired by the Punjab police. But the police was denying that the bullet was fired from Punjab police weapon. It was only after two years that the Punjab police admitted that the bullet which hit Jaspal Singh was actually fired from Punjab police’s AK 47.