CHANDIGARH: In a raid conducted by the Warrant Officer appointed in pursuance to the orders of Justice J.B. Garg of Punjab and Haryana High Court, three persons namely Raja Singh (70), son Joginder Singh, and Ms. Surjit Kaur alias Sito, all residents of Patiala, were recovered from the illegal custody of S.L. Harpreet Singh. S.H.O. Or Patiala City police station, other officials. They were tortured and bore multiple injuries. At the time of recovery there was no lady constable with Ms. Surjit Kaur.

The Warrant Officer was appointed by the high court, on a petition filed by Kamnail Singh, brother of Joginder Singh, averring in the petition that since his family always raised its voice against Harpreet Singh’s misdeeds. he became inimical towards them. Last week, he along with police party came to their house and asked the three persons and Mohan Singh son of Raja Singh, to accompany him to the police station as there was a complaint against them. On their resistance, they were forcefully put on a Gypsy and taken to the police station. He further averred in the petition that Harpreet Singh and other also snatched the jewelry of his blind mother, Lilawanti.

It was only on January 18 that he released Mohan Singh in injured condition. Hislostankle had been broken. It was furtheraverred that Surjit Kaur alias Sito bad been taken by them without a lady constable. ISRO case: Srivastava suspended

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Kerala Government last week, suspended the controversial Inspector General of Police Raman Srivastava who is accused of involvement in the espionage scandal involving the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO).

The suspension followed the finding of a division bench of the Kerala High Court last week that there was sufficient material to link Srivastava with the espionage case.

The Chief Secretary, R. Ramachandran Nair, said that the suspension order was issued after the government considered the observations made by the high court division bench earlier in the day while disposing of a writ appeal filed by a lawyers forum seeking a direction for the arrest of Srivastava

The decision to suspend Srivastava was taken after the Chief Secretary gol in telephonic contact with the Chief Minister, K. Karunakaran, who was away in New Delhi

The division bench found the “un mistakable involvement of state IG Ramon Srivastava going by the Intelligence Bureau (1B) report in Kochi While dismissing a writ petition filed by Niyamavedi, a Kochi-based organization of lawyers seeking the arrest of Ramon Srivastava, the bench consisting of Justice K. Sreedharan and Justico BN. Patnaik stated that the aspects relating to the IG’s involvement were seen to have been ignored by the CBI Director while filing his affidavit before the court

The court directed the CBI Director to re-examine the espionage case with “more caution and to direct his officers to proceed with the investigation “on the proper line.”

The judges, who perused the records submitted by the IB and the CBI said the IB had reported that Ramon Srivastava had emerged in the case as the most important member of the inner group.

Article extracted from this publication >> January 27, 1995