Amritsar: The mis-use of sedition law was indirectly admitted by the Punjab government and the Amritsar police as the police finally annulled the First-Information Report (FIR) registered against organisers of the Panthic Gathering at village Chabba on November 10, 2015 that was termed as “Sarbat Khalsa 2015”.
The Chatiwind police had booked 20 people under sections 124-A (sedition), 153-A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion), 153-B (assertions prejudicial to national-integration), 115 (abetment of offence punishable with death or imprisonment for life), 117 (abetting commission of offence by the public or by more than ten persons), 120-B (criminal conspiracy) of the IPC and section 13 (1) of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act 1967 and Section 66-F of the Information Technology Act.
♦ RELATED NEWS : SEDITION CASE AGAINST SARBAT KHALSA 2015 ORGANIZERS, INCLUDING DIASPORA SIKHS (13/11/2015)
Those who were named in the FIR included Simranjit Singh Mann; Dhian Singh Mand; Jaskaran Singh Kahan Singh Wala; Mohkam Singh; Gurdip Singh Bathinda; Satnam Singh Manawan; Wassan Singh Jaffarwal; Gurjinder Singh; Baljit Singh Daduwal; Amrik Singh Ajnala; Surinder Singh Thikriwal; Joga Singh Mohalke; Pappalpreet Singh Mardi; Resham Singh (USA), Surjit Singh (USA), Paramjit Singh (UK), Gurbhej Singh (USA), Harinder Singh (USA), Baljinder Singh (Italy) and Wadhawa Singh Babbar.
The case FIR reportedly discarded on the directions of a commission appointed by the Congress party led government in Punjab to review the cases registered for ‘political reasons’ by previous SAD (Badal)-BJP led government.
SSP Parampal Singh has reportedly confirmed that the FIR had been quashed as per the recommendation of the justice Mehtab Singh Gill commission. He added, “The report of annulment of the FIR has been sent to the commission.”