CHANDIGARH, India: A Magistrial enquiry ordered into incidents at Batala in Gurdaspur district in June last year in which one person was killed and two were injured in a mob violmce has held a company of C.RP..F. fully responsible for the incident. The confidential report submitted recently is being processed by the State Home Department. The probe was ordered by the District Magistrate as required by the section 174 of the C.R.P.C. Mr.Dalbir Singh of Dhaulpur village was killed and two others, Sarbjit Singh and Sardara Singh were injured by the violent mob in civil hospital at Nehru Gate in June 12. The crowd had resorted to brick batting when it gathered to take away the bodies of two persons killed by gun men in Manodpura village on that day. The enquiry officer has stated that death and injuries were due to lapse by a company of the C.R.P.F, which could have prevented this ugly situation by taking timely action. The magistrate has stated that C_R.P.F. should have resorted to firing in the air or a lathi charge instead of loosely using the persua sive method to disperse the mob. The person who was killed in the incident was reportedly passing by on a bicycle when he was attacked by the mob.
Among these who deposed before the enquiry officer were Dr. Kulwant Singh, Dr. Paramjit Kaur
and a news reporter Subhash Kocher. The state government is likely to send the report to the Union Home Ministry, as the C.R.P.F. is a paramilitary force and is directly under the Center. Significantly the C.R.P.F. personnel did not agree to depose before the enquiry officer. The Punjab government has said that the report of the magisterial enquiry into the killing of Mohinder Singh and his sister Jagdev Kaur of Veroke village Gurdaspur in June last year has already been sent to the Center for necessary action. Two B.S.F. Jawans were also killed in the incident which took place when the B.S.F. on a tipoff raided the farm house of Narayan Singh Varoke instead of the House of another person which was close by.
The probe stated that two B.S.F. Jawan were killed during the cross fire between the security forces.
The son and daughter of Narayan Singh were killed and his wife injured without any provocation. This is a brutal murder of innocent family members by B.S.F. Jawans. The enquiry officer has not accepted the version of the security forces that two member of the family were killed in a crossfire between the security forces and freedom fighters as they were killed from a close range.
The B.S.F. did not cooperate with the enquiry as the units which carried out the operation had been posted at to another location. According to reports reaching here a magisterial enquiry has been ordered into the incident recently at Tarsata village in Amritsar district in which one person was killed at his house at night and the police had blamed the freedom fighters but the members of the family of the deceased have demanded an enquiry and made allegations against the police. The brother of the deceased is wanted by the police and is also absconding. The deceased himself was under police detention till recently when he was bailed out.
Article extracted from this publication >> March 13, 1987
