Chandigarh/ Gurdaspur (September 02, 2013): It is learnt that the Punjab and Haryana High Court on September 02, 2013 summoned the Punjab chief secretary and Director General of Police after the state counsel failed to file the status report in the case in which a teenage Sikh student Bhai Jaspal Singh was killed in police firing in Gurdaspur on March 29, 2012.
Engineering Student Jaspal Singh (Gurdaspur), who was shot dead by police at Gurdaspur on March 29, 2012
The FIR in the case, in which another Sikh youth Ranjit Singh was also injured in police firing, was registered on March 29, 2012, at Gurdaspur police station.
The directions came during the resumed hearing of a public interest litigation filed by NGO Lawyers for Human Rights International (LFHRI). The petitioner has sought a CBI inquiry into the case.
File photo of Jaspal Singh who was killed by Punjab police at Gurdaspur on March 29, 2012
On the last date of hearing, the court had directed the authorities concerned to file the status report after verifying from the forensic science laboratory (FSL) at SAS Nagar as to from which weapon(s) bullets had been fired which proved fatal for Jaspal Singh and injured Ranjit Singh. The high court had directed to send all the weapons issued to the cops on the date of firing incident to the FSL at SAS Nagar.
However, as per the earlier directions of the court, deputy inspector general of police (crime) Balkar Singh Sidhu was present in the court on September 02. The court had also asked the police to file the action taken report on the investigation report earlier submitted to the court by commissioner of police, Jalandhar.
The petitioner had informed the court that on March 29, around 20 to 30 Sikh youths were sitting outside Gurdwara Ramgarhia, Tibri Road, Gurdaspur, seeking arrest of the Shiv Sena activists, who had thrashed some Sikh youth on March 28 when the Sikh youths were showing their resentment against the scheduled execution of Sikh political prisoner Bhai Balwant Singh Rajoana.
It was then that around 100 police personnel reached the spot and without any warning first opened fire in the air and later targeted the unarmed youth.
The case will come up for hearing on September 10.