SIT sat tight for 10 days,didn’t question ‘underground’ ex-mayor: Victim’s family

“Later SIT merely compiled the investigation details already gathered by the local police and presented an armchair report. The police is corrupt,and it won’t be surprising if we get to know that the SIT members might have been bought over by Pradhan,” Tejinder Singh Sodhi,the victim’s paternal uncle,alleged.

Though Diwedi met the victim’s family,she showed her “helplessness” at not being able to call the mayor for his statement. “The mayor is underground and that is why we do not know what he has to say in the case,” Diwedi had told this correspondent.

The mayor was given a clean chit even when he was underground. The police did not ask if he was clean then why did he go underground,” asked the victim’s family. “Now armed with the SIT clean chit,Pradhan emerged from nowhere and held a press conference. Someone who failed to appear before the SIT now says he is ready to face any probe. It is a joke and travesty of justice,” Sodhi said.

The SIT report states that Parampreet was murdered but there is no evidence against Pardhan being involved in the murder. Pradhaan is considered to be close friend of the family of the accused.

“The SIT did not bother to find out why Pradhan tried to hush up the case. He tried to stop us from getting a postmortem conducted. Are these not crimes? What about the fact that Parampreet’s husband Harpreet and his mother were being patronised by Pradhan for years? Harpreet dared to commit a murder because he knew that Prdahan would bail him out,” said Sodhi.

Interestingly,the SIT head said that the victim’s family was not able to provide any evidence against Pradhan. “Is it our duty to give evidence to the police? In murder cases is it the dead person who comes back to life and tells who murdered him? It is such a shame. We have lost a daughter. Is there no justice in this state for the common ma?,” Sodhi asked.

The SIT’s findings and Pradhan’s press conference came just two days before the shiromani Akali Dal is to elect a new mayor for Patiala,giving credence to the victim’s family’s allegations that the panel was constituted to give a clean chit to Pradhan.

The victim’s family has moved the Punjab and Haryana High Court demanding a CBI probe into the murder. The case comes up for hearing on April 25.

Parampreet Kaur,a 28-year-old mother of two,was murdered allegedly by her husband on February 22. The FIR named Pardhan as the victim’s father-in-law and booked him in murder case. The mayor resigned following an order of the deputy chief minister and the CM constituted an SIT to probe the case.