CHANDIGARH: The District and Sessions Judge Amar Dutt, in his judgment last week, held Kanwar Singh Dhami, former chief of the Akal Federation guilty of sedition, waging war against the state and making disruptive speeches. However, his wife Kulbir Kaur has been acquitted by giving her the benefit of the doubt. Dhami however, was acquitted by the Sessions Judge in the case pertaining to the Terrorist Act of the TADA. The length of sentence for Dhami would be decided by the session’s court after listening to arguments of the defence counsel. The charges of sedition and waging War against the state government are punishable with a fine to life imprisonment or both.
A pall of gloom descended among the family members and supporters of Dhami who had assembled in the court here expecting that both Dhami and his wife would be acquitted by the court Kulbir Kaur was seen weeping. Dhami was convicted on the basis of arguments of the state counsel stating that in a secular polity no ethnic group or community or minorities should be allowed to wage war of separation against the state government.
Earlier Dhami’s state managed surrender drama had ended in a fiasco on March 29, 1994 when he played down the same before media persons in the presence of then DGP of Punjab K.P.S. Gill. There was also a controversy surrounding Dhami’s arrest. While he claimed he was picked up by the Punjab police from a Gurdwara in Ahmedabad on May 17, 1993 and kept in illegal custody for 10 months, the Ropar police claimed he was arrested on March 28, 1994 from Anandpur Sahib.
Article extracted from this publication >> July 31, 1996
