JALANDHAR: Police on March 17 admitted they raided the residence of slain militant Gurdeep Singh Deepa in Heran village on March 12 in the guise of his associates in a bid to catch his absconding accomplice Kulbir Singh Kulbira who was suspected to be hiding there.
According to the police the police party, headed by SHO Santokh Singh, had gone to the village in search of some criminals in the early hours of March 12 but as the van, in which they had gone, developed some trouble on the outskirts of the village, where the villagers on night vigil duty (theekri pehra) caught hold of all the security men, taking them as the suspected persons wandering in civil dress, (the policemen were in civilian clothes).
The vigil men raised an alarm and a large crowd gathered there, on the pleas made by Santokh Singh some villagers went to the sarpanch and brought him on the scene that identified Santokh Singh as the SHO, Nakodar, and managed to rescue the security men.
But there has been another version also; the police party had allegedly gone to the village to apprehend some relatives of the dreaded militant Gurdip Singh Deepa, who had earlier been killed in an encounter, in a private vehicle which had been reported taken from a transporter of Nakodar for the purpose.
It is alleged that the police had attempted to take relatives of the killed militants in custody but they instead, raised an alarm which summoned trouble for the policemen.
It is the second such case in which the policemen have escaped action from villagers in the district. Earlier, in Khakkan village, the police party had a narrow escape with the timely action by the police.
It will be recalled that the police chief of Jalandhar, S.K.Sharma, had directed all the policemen not to conduct raids at night in villages and had strictly prohibited them not to use private vehicles during the raids. Policemen were also advised to take with them village elders during raids.
Article extracted from this publication >> March 26, 1993
