AMRITSAR SAHIB, Punjab—Angered over mild police action against the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) members and officials for brutally thrashing them on the premises of Sri Darbar Sahib (Harmandir Sahib), the Sikh activists today demanded the probe of the attack be handed over to any IPS officer and CCTV record of the incident be seized.
Dictated by the SGPC members and officials, the SGPC task force on October 24 thrashed the activists mercilessly and ruthlessly in an attempt to forcibly remove the morcha (agitation) being undertaken by them since September 24 to seek justice in the case of missing Guru Granth Sahib’s saroops. Instead of booking SGPC task force for attempt to murder, the Police booked the victims for these charges, while the former were booked for minimal charges.
To challenge this move of the Police, the victims lodged an application to Amritsar Police Commissioner Sukhchain Singh Gill today demanding that CCTV footages of the incident and phone call details of the SGPC functionaries and the Police officers deployed on the spot at the time of the incident should be seized to investigate the role of the gurdwara body played to brutalize them.
Notably, the activists who were brutalized inside the SGPC office for more than four hours also included women and non-adults. They were also humiliated verbally by the SGPC functionaries.
It has also been learned that the activists were beaten up in presence of an SP-ranked Police officer. The victims have demanded his role be probed as well.
Feeling heat over cross FIR registered by Police against its office-bearers, members and officials for attacking the Sikh agitators, the SGPC chief Gobind Singh Longowal yesterday wrote a letter to Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh seeking cancellation of the FIR.
Written by the SGPC president Gobind Singh Longowal, the letter was also marked to Chief Secretary and Director General of Police (DGP) of the state.
In fact, the Police were bound to register a cross FIR on the complaint of Sikh agitators who were deadly assaulted by the SGPC operatives and injured seriously, otherwise, it had spared them on the day of the attack. If it registered cross FIR, it was with minimal charges, while that against the Sikh agitators who were the victims, was with harsh charges including section 307 (attempt to murder) of IPC.
Under mysterious circumstances, the cross FIR is being kept secret by the Police. It has been learned that it was registered under section 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 342 (wrongful confinement), 148 (rioting), and 149 (unlawful assembly) at Police Station (E-Division).
