Bathinda military station killings | Police issue notice to Army authorities: produce personnel for recording statement

Section 160 of the CrPC says, “Any police officer, making an investigation under this Chapter may, by order in writing, require the attendance before himself of any person being within the limits of his own or any adjoining station who, from the information given or otherwise, appears to be acquainted with the facts and circumstances of the case; and such person shall attend as so required”.

Speaking to The Sunday Express, the SHO of Bathinda Cantt police station, Gurdeep Singh, confirmed that the notices had been served on the Army authorities. He said 10 Army personnel have been sought to be presented before the police to record their statements.

Four Army personnel from an Artillery regiment — Gunner Sagar Banne, Gunner Kamalesh R, Gunner Yogesh Kumar J, and Gunner Santosh M Nagral — were killed on April 12 while they were sleeping in their rooms in a barrack behind the officers’ mess. There has been no headway into the investigation into the killings even three days after the incident.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, a Bathinda police official said that they have had no significant role in the investigation after the initial visit to the scene of the crime and the recovery of the murder weapon reported to them by the Army.

“The entire investigation is being done by the Army itself and we are only being told that whenever something comes up, we shall be informed. This is not a satisfactory state of affairs as the investigation into an FIR has to be done by the police,” said the officer.

Another official added that while the Army can petition courts to take over a criminal trial of an Army person it cannot take over the mantel of an investigation agency in a murder case of this magnitude. “We have been informed that the Military Intelligence is actively investigating the killings but that agency is not trained in policing methods of gathering evidence,” said another police officer.

Sources within Bathinda police inform that investigating officers probing the murders are considering  Gunner Desai Mohan, an eyewitness, and Gunner Naga Suresh as persons of interest. Senior police officers have already aired their doubts on the veracity of the statements of Desai Mohan regarding the number of assailants, their attire (of Kurta Pyjama) and that one of them was carrying an axe.

The postmortem of the bodies of the killed jawans revealed only bullet injuries and no injury from any axe.

ADGP Bathinda Range, SS Parmar, had earlier said that there were only multiple bullet wounds on the bodies. When asked about the statement of the eyewitness, the ADGP had said the police cannot go by statements alone.

Meanwhile, military station continues to be in a state of lockdown with all schools closed inside the station. There has been a consequent delay in the checking of CBSE board examination papers and alternate arrangements have been made so that the time table for compiling results does not suffer.