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Amritsar, Punjab: The family members of Jaspal Singh, an engineering student who was killed in police firing on March 29 following which curfew was imposed in the city, have sought time till April 25 to record their statements in front of the inquiry commission probing the incident.
Jalandhar Divisional Commissioner Anurag Verma, who is looking after the probe, said the victim’s father, Gurcharanjit Singh, wanted to record his statement in the presence of a senior Supreme Court lawyer, Navkiran Singh. The inquiry report has to be submitted to the state government within a month.
Senior officials, including Mohinder Singh Kainth and Varinder Pal Singh, former Gurdaspur Deputy Commissioner and Senior Superintendent of Police, respectively, have already recorded their statements.
Varinder Pal claimed the circumstances flared to such an extent that police was left with no option but to fire in the air to control the surging mob of Sikh activists. He, however, said the bullet that hit Jaspal Singh was not fired by any police official.
The statements of suspended DSP Manpreet Singh, the then SHO of Gurdaspur (City) police station Shama Singh, ASI Ajvinder Singh and Naib Tehsildar JP Salwan, who was the acting magistrate when the firing took place, were also recorded.
The deceased’s father wondered as to why the police did not use tear gas shells prior to actual firing even if in the air. “Police could have given a warning to the mob to disperse if it was feared that the situation may spin out of control. But, they started firing without any warning,” Gurcharanjit said.
Both the SSP Varinder Pal and DSP Manpreet against whom section 302(murder charge) was imposed roam free.As per law of the land they sould be put behind bars. Also over 16 Shiv sainiks against whom cases were registered for beating up sikhs and damaging sikhs property and removing thier turbans, none of them have been arrested.