Four accused inspectors moved out of Patiala Range
Sangrur, July 25 -- A week after the Punjab and Haryana high court handed over the probe to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), deputy inspector general (DIG) Kuldeep Singh Chahal moved four inspectors allegedly involved in the assault on Colonel Pushpinder Singh Bath and his son out of the Patiala Range.
Punjab Police inspectors Harjinder Singh, Shaminder Singh, Harry Boparai and Ronnie Singh have already been placed under suspension for allegedly assaulting Colonel Bath and his 21-year-old son Angad over a parking dispute outside a roadside eatery near Government Rajindra Hospital in Patiala on March 13.
The four inspectors have been relieved on the DIG's orders, officials, privy to the development, said. Earlier, Harjinder and Shaminder were posted at Sangrur Police Lines, while Boparai was posted at Malerkotla Police Lines and Ronnie Singh at the Barnala Police Lines. Now, Harjinder and Shaminder have been sent to the Bathinda Range, while Boparai and Ronnie Singh have been posted in the Ludhiana Range.
Colonel Bath's wife, Jasvinder Kaur, had been demanding that the suspended police inspectors be shifted out of the Patiala Range for a fair investigation.
The case was originally probed by Punjab Police before the high court, on April 3, handed the case to Chandigarh Police on a plea filed by the Colonel, who sought a probe by CBI or an independent agency. A special investigation team (SIT) led by Chandigarh Police SP Manjeet Sheoran was constituted on April 11 to probe the matter.
On July 16, the Punjab and Haryana high court while entrusting the probe to Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) said that it cannot be a mute spectator to the conduct of the investigating agency in conducting the probe in a "tainted manner". The high court asserted that the purpose of the investigation is to bring out the truth and not to suppress the same. Weighing the facts and circumstances of the case, the court finds that there are "no prospects of free and fair investigation" in the case by Chandigarh police.
The probe was entrusted out of the state to ensure an impartial investigation but the court finds "no change in the situation", it added.
"...From the overwhelming circumstances of the case, the court is convinced that the investigating agency is not only trying to create loopholes in the investigation, but trying to make craters in the investigation so as to ensure that once the chargesheet is filed before the court, the case of the prosecution should hardly be able to crawl in the court," the bench of justice Rajesh Bhardwaj said....
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