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Journalism of Courage
CHANDIGARH, January 21: Justice R L Anand of Punjab and Haryana High Court has taken serious view of an incident when a warrant officer who raided the Verowal police station under the Tarn Taran police district, was abused, threatened and made to sign on dotted line by the police.
Justice Anand issued directions to SSP Tarn Taran besides the Director General of Police to register a criminal case against Inspector Gurdip Singh, SHO Verowal and Sanjiwan Singh, head constable for their alleged misbehaviour with the warrant officer, Gian Singh, early this month.
The judge also suo motu initiated criminal contempt proceedings against the two police personnel for intimidating an appointee of the court and forcing him to write a false report in the “roznamcha” declaring that the detenue Balwinder Singh was not found in police custody.
The warrant officer, Gian Singh was sent by the High Court to affect the recovery of a detenue after one of his relatives filed a habeas corpus petition alleging that Balwinder Singh had been taken into illegal custody at the instance of a landlord.
Balwinder Singh, a poor farm hand, had been working for a landlord, Mohinder Singh. In 1996, while working on a fodder machine, Balwinder Singh lost his hand. The landlord fired him and refused to extend any monetary help. The victim moved the Workmen Compensation Commission at Amritsar seeking damages from Mohinder Singh.
According to the petition filed by advocate R S Bajaj, at the instance of the landlord the Verowal police took Balwinder Singh into illegal custody and asked him to withdraw the compensation case. P S Hundal, who represented the state denied the allegations.
The warrant officer reported to the court that when he visited the police station on January 2, along with Boota Singh, Karamjit Singh and Lakha Singh Azad, the inspector and the munshi snatched the “roznamcha” from him. He was intimidated and threatened by SHO Gurdip Singh, who directed him to record in the “roznamcha” that the detenue was not found in the police station. The detenue was beaten in front of the warrant officer. Later, Boota Singh and Karamjit Singh were also dragged out from the van in which they had travelled to Verowal and whisked away. The warrant officer escaped and reached Chandigarh.
SHO Gurdip Singh refused to accept the high court notice and asked ASI Jangir Singh to accept the same. (The SHO was apparently drunk, the report said.)
Justice Anand directed that a copy of the report submitted by the warrant officer be sent to SSP Tarn Taran to enable him to realise “the gravity of the situation and the `goondaism’ and `hooliganism’ going on under his nose”.
