WSN Service
CHANDIGARH: Ashok Kumar Gupta an executive magistrate of Chandigarh alleged that the police of the Delhi administered union territory was putting pressure on him to give police remand of Sikh militants without observing prescribed procedure or without giving the accused a hearing.
Ina letter to the Chandigarh home secretary Gupta said that the local police invariably did not even complete papers and sought remand without even producing the accused before him That he said he could not do. As such he pleaded he should be transferred to Punjab. Gupta is on deputation with the union territory administration. He belongs to the Punjab cadre. . Gupta said that working under these circumstances had been rendered extremely difficult for a magistrate like him and he had been left with no option except to request for being repatriated to Punjab. Earlier two other executive magistrates Jarnail Singh and Narinder Singh Brar had objected to the manner in which the local police had misbehaved with them and had detained them in a police lock-up to teach a lesson for not obliging the administration in respect of Sikh militants
In this connection the administration home secretary ordered an enquiry by local sub divisional magistrate Jagjit Puri but he could not proceed with the investigation as no police official turned up for evidence despite repeated polices issued to them. The administration withdrew magisterial powers to the two officers instead of forcing the guilty police officers to cooperate with the enquiry.
This pattern of police dictating terms to judiciary so widespread in Punjab is being followed by the Chandigarh police headed by SSP Sumedh Singh Saini with impunity.
Article extracted from this publication >> August 23, 1991
