Police officials at Jamalpur village in Ludhiana district
The Punjab state government has buckled under mounting pressure to act against police personnel involved in a fake encounter incident which took place at Jamalpur village in Ludhiana district on Saturday.
A constable, along with two home guards who were involved in the killing of two young men, have been dismissed from service. The SHO of Machchiwara Police Station has also been dismissed while Harsh Kumar Bansal, SSP of Khanna district, has been suspended for dereliction of duty. The government has also constituted a Special Investigation Team (SIT) headed by the Commissioner of Ludhiana Police to submit a report within 15 days.
Meanwhile, the Punjab Congress state unit chief Partap Singh Bajwa has demanded the immediate resignation of Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal, who is also the Home Minister. The party has described the incident as a cold-blooded murder of two Dalit brothers by the police.
Referring to the involvement of an Akali leader from the area, the Congress has demanded a time-bound high level probe by a sitting judge of the Punjab and Haryana High Court. It said only an inquiry of such kind could go into the depths of the case which could essentially revolve around a politician-police nexus.
It is being alleged that Gurjit Singh, a man who had accompanied the police party to Jamalpur village has links with the Akali Dal. Gurjit, along with three police personnel involved in the encounter, are under police remand.