Chandigarh: Taking a serious note of the Punjab police officials’ conduct in the case of alleged assault of an Army Colonel Pushpinder Singh Bath and his son by Punjab police personnel in Patiala, the Punjab and Haryana High Court on Tuesday gave the state government two days’ time to explain the seven-day delay in registration of an FIR on the complaint of the army officer.
Issuing a notice of motion to the CBI and the state government, the Bench of Justice Sandeep Moudgil also sought the Punjab government to file its detailed reply by March 28. The Bench also asked the state government to explain why it did not proceed with another complaint by a police official who also claimed injuries.
The court was hearing Col Bath’s petition which also sought the transfer of the probe into the FIR registered by Patiala police to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
For record, Col Bath and his son were allegedly assaulted by accused Punjab police personnel on the intervening night of March 13 and 14 when the two were having food at a roadside “dhaba’’ (eatery) near Government Rajindra Hospital in Patiala.
The incident took place when the cops – who were in civil dress and allegedly drunk but had come in their official police vehicles rudely asked the army officer to move his car as they wanted to park theirs.They reportedly assaulted father and son when the army officer former objected to their rude tone. The entire incident was recorded in a CCTV camera installed at the “dhaba’’.
The police had earlier refused to register an FIR and later allegedly attempted to hide the names of some cops. The case came to light after army officer’s wife addressed newspersons in Chandigarh and Patiala with CCTV footages and also the recording done by her in her phone showing some of accused cops apologising for the said assault stating “they did not know the person they beat up was an army officer’’.
It was after four days of the incident that the police officials apologised and assured the army that they had suspended the erring cops. The suspended cops included inspectors Harry Boparai, Ronnie Singh and Harjinder Dhillon, besides nine other personnel including their gunmen.
However, the “dhaba’’ (eatery) owner claimed that the army officer and his son were drinking and people who came in two cars had a scuffle over parking their vehicles.
