Protest in Punjab’s Bathinda after death in police custody
After four Punjab Police personnel booked for culpable homicide not amounting to murder, protesters demand their arrest and accuse district police authorities of shielding the accused for May 23 incident.
Social, trader and farmer organisations held a protest outside the Bathinda district administrative complex (DAC) complex on Thursday against the alleged custodial death of Narinderdeep Singh, 35, a resident of Goniana town.
An instructor at an IELTS centre in Bathinda, Narinderdeep, died under suspicious circumstances on May 23.
The role of Punjab Police’s crime investigation agency (CIA-2) is being probed and four personnel, namely assistant sub-inspector Avtar Singh, head constable Harwinder Singh and senior constables Lakhwinder Singh and Gurpal Singh, have been booked for culpable homicide not amounting to murder.
The four were suspended by the Bathinda senior superintendent of police (SSP) on May 26, but they are yet to be arrested.
Protesters raised slogans against the district police authorities for allegedly shielding the accused.
They demanded murder charges be slapped on the entire CIA-2 staff.
Police sources said Narinderdeep and his friends, Gagandeep Singh and Happy Luthra, were intercepted on May 23 night by the CIA-2 team on suspicion of carrying narcotics. The three were returning from Ferozepur after an unspecified financial transaction when they were questioned by the police in Bathinda.
Following a complaint by Narinderdeep’s father, Dr Ranjit Singh, both the friends and four CIA-2 staffers were booked at the Canal Colony police station on May 25.
On May 24, Gagandeep posted a video on his Facebook page, claiming the CIA-2 staff had picked Narinderdeep and he was allegedly tortured to death by the police. In his video, Gagandeep also claimed that following police pressure, he falsely informed Narinderdeep’s family that he had died in a road accident.
The family grew suspicious about Gagandeep’s statement and a case was registered against the six persons.
Narinderdeep’s widow Nancy demanded strict and prompt action against the police for the alleged crime.
The autopsy report by a board of senior doctors at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Bathinda, on May 29 found multiple injuries caused by blunt force on Narinderdeep’s body but none of them was stated to be fatal.
The AIIMS report said that the cause of death could be ascertained after receiving the viscera report.
The institute issued a statement on June 3, rubbishing claims that the doctors concluded that electric shocks caused Narinderdeep’s death. The chemical analysis report of the viscera from the forensic science laboratory in Kharar is awaited.
