CHANDIGARH: The Army has strongly protested to the Punjab Governor and Chandigarh Administrator Surendra Nath, and the Punjab Chief Minister, Beant Singh the assault on Lt. Col Ravi Vasta by Senior Superintendent of Police S.S.Saini, on Oct.17 and has got the Colonel released from illegal confinement in the Sector Police Station on Sunday morning, official spokesman of the Army said on Sunday.

Saini, a Punjab cadre IPS officer, has been on deputation with Chandigarh Administration for the past two years.

Lt.Col Ravi Vasta of the Military Police, was beaten up in Sector after a firing incident in which the wife of Head Constable Raj Kumar was killed and 18-month old daughter seriously injured (she later died), Raj Kumar also got a bullet injury in the incident.

As the efforts of his family members and the Commanding Officer of Western Command at the Chandimandir failed to locate him at different police stations, top level officers came into the picture and, besides taking up the matter with the Punjab Governor, Chief Minister, and reportedly with the Director General of Police, Punjab K.P.S.Gill, deputed Brigadier Vinod Chibber to locate him. It was after about three hours effort by Brig Chibber that Lt Col Vatsa was finally dropped at his residence by Deputy Superintendent of Police S.C.Abrol after the Inspector General of Police R.S.Gupta apologized to him over the telephone. Brig Chibber also accompanied Lt Col Vaisa to the PGIMER and stayed with him for several hours.

He was discharged from the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research on Sunday night.

Meanwhile, it is learnt that Punjab Governor and Administrator of Chandigarh Surendra Nath rang up the Western Command here from Bangalore and asked the Army to exercise restraint in pursuing the SSP-Colonel controversy until he returns to the city. The Governor is officially expected to return by Oct.23.

An Army officer said that the Army does not intend to compromise as the lieutenant colonel was in no way at fault. Lt Col Vatsa refused to meet the police officers who visited his residence and also refused to go to the Deputy Commissioner’s residence where he was invited, Finally, the Deputy Commissioner went to the Army officer’s home in an attempt to sort out the matter.

Inspector General of Police, Chandigarh, R.S.Gupta however said no FIR had been registered until late in the evening. While expressing his concern over the incident he said he gave the matter utmost importance the moment he came to know about it. Giving his account of the incident, he said before leaving the spot in Sector 7 where the firing had taken place, he had ordered the whole area to be cordoned off as the crowd gathered there was entering the room where the body was lying in a pool of blood. “One curious person came so near that his shoes were soaked in blood and thus there was every chance of losing valuable evidence,” Gupta said Resentment prevailed among city journalists over the SSP’s snatching a film roll from the Express photographer and his bodyguards” manhandling an Express reporter N.S.Minhas, spokesman of the Akali Dal (Manjit), Chandigarh condemned this attack on the media describing it as an effort to suppress the freedom of the press.

Senior officers of the Chandigarh Police remained busy in sorting out the matter with the Army, journalists and doctors, R.S.Gupta, 1.G. regretted the incident involving journalists over the telephone to the news photographer and promised to return the roll in the afternoon, The roll was however not returned until this report was being filed.

The Shiromani Akali Dal president Simranjit Singh Mann and chairman of the Punjab Human Rights Organization Ajit Singh Bains have condemned the reported beating up of the lieutenant colonel and incidents of manhandling and misbehavior with journalists and doctors by Saini. They described the incident involving journalists as an attack on the freedom of the press,

Article extracted from this publication >> October 30, 1992