File Photo: Bhai Daljeet Singh being carried by SHO Sadar Ludhiana to the court complex.
MANSA/LUDHIANA: Indian police establishment seems adamant on not mending its ways. At a time when the Indian police has egg on its face with a large number of encounters turning out to be fake, and exactly when a magisterial probe has brought out how people were killed in cold blood and then passed off as hardcore terrorists in Gujarat, the Punjab Police seems to have learnt no lessons and is continuing to embroil youthful Sikh leadership in one case after the other.
The sole purpose clearly seems to be to prevent them from participation in legitimate democratic politics and to exclude them from the opinion making spheres since this emerging Sikh leadership was attracting large numbers of the Sikh sangat, particularly the youth.
Just when a judge refused to extend the police remand of Bhai Daljit Singh Bittu and his associates and sent them to jail for 14 days in judicial custody, the Punjab Police came out with another case, and presented Bhai Bittu in the court of Mansa’s local judge Dimple Walia in the Lily murder case.
Lily was a follower of the Sirsa Dera sadh who was killed by unidentified gunmen a few days back. Police seems to have found it convenient to embroil Bhai Bittu in the case since he and his party has been aggressively fighting the inroads being made in Punjab by the Sirsa dera head. Incidentally, the Sirsa dera head is a prime accused in multiple rape and murder cases being probed by the CBI, India’s top sleuthing agency, on the directions of none other than the Punjab and Haryana High Court.
Bhai Bittu was sent into police remand on September 13 by the court for one day.
Bhai Bittu’s counsels Lakhwinder Singh and Ajit Singh Bhangoo said Bhai Bittu was brought without any prior notice from the Ludhiana jail to Mansa and was presented at the residence of the judge.
The police claim that a case was registered against the Akali Dal (Panch Pardhani) president as FIR number 61 under sections 302, 34 IPC, 120-B and Arms Act.
In the meanwhile, in a separate case, Prof Gurvir Singh was also brought from the Bathinda jail on a production warrant to Mansa and he too was sent into one day police remand.
Bhai Daljit Singh Bittu continues to be under arrest since Friday, August 28, and are widely being accused by the police through motivated leaks to the media and pliable sections of journalists as somehow linked with efforts to revive militancy in the state. Ironically, after the arrests, the CM, the Deputy CM and the DGP are on record saying that there was not even a remote chance of revival of militancy.
Large sections of Sikh Nation feel Bhai Bittu has been a target in recent times because of the upcoming SGPC elections as the rulingh Badal Dal fears that he will be a major challenge in the SGPC elections. The Badal Dal has virtually lost its panthic constituency and has turned itself into a mainstream secular party with no pretensions to speak for the welfare of the Sikhs. The fact that its top leadership is in a vice-like grip of the brahmanical Hindutva ideology and Badals call the Akali Dal-BJP alliance as eternal and fraternal is not lost on the Sikh sangat.
Bhai Daljit Singh Bittu has been operating within the democratic paradigm of politics for many years now but the police has now claimed that the investigations into the activities of one Balbir Singh Maulviwala nicknamed as Bhootna by Police and Media, caught in an encounter in Ludhiana, have revealed that he was in touch with Bittu. Such police actions and claims in the past have often been blown to smithereens in the courts but by then, much damage is already done.
Bhai Daljit Singh Bittu is someone who has first hand seen the dark days of the ruthless suppression of Sikh aspirational movement and has since then been seen as a leader with a certain amount of ideological clarity. In recent times, he had taken the lead in the fight against dera-vaad in Punjab and has been seen in the forefront as far as implementing the edict of the Akal Takht was concerned regarding the Sirsa dera head.
Apart from Bittu, his associated Advocate Jaspal Singh Manjhpur and Palwinder Singh were also arrested from Ludhiana and are now in judicial remand at Ludhiana Jail while office Sewadar of Panch Pardhani is at Bathinda Jail along with Bhai Bittu.