Doctor pressurised

On July 12, 1996, a police party headed by ASI Sikandar Singh of Police Post (PP) Jagdev Kalan visited the house of an old handicapped man Ajit Singh whose wife is totally confined to bed, in village Kotla Gujjran, Jhander. The old man was beaten up and taken away. He was brought back in a seriously injured condition and left. People took him to the PP in the village. The police recorded a report under Section 323 IPC which is for a non-cognisable offence. People were advised orally to take him immediately to hospital. He was taken to the Guru Nanak Dev Hospital where injuries were recorded. Afraid that he might die, the culprits and their friends helped in efforts to save him by giving funds and by arranging for blood. Ajit Singh, however, died.

The police bosses of Majitha police district tried to pressurise the family and relations of the deceased to compromise. When this did not succeed, the SSP himself took the position that it was a case only under the Section 323 of IPC and there was nothing to be done by the police. When the leader of the Communist Party India (CPI), Satya Pal Dang ,took up the cast, the SSP gave an explanation that Ajit Singh’s death was due to old age. To support this, he said that the doctor who did the post-mortem has given such an opinion. Apparently the doctor concerned gave such totally wrong opinion under the police pressure. The SSP however agreed to order a fresh inquiry.

ASI Sikander Singh and his party had no jurisdiction in PS Jhander. It visited Kotla Gujjaran because some altercation had taken place. between a son of Ajit Singh and a relative of the ASI. In this, the latter had received some injury. In this matter a case had already been registered and the son of Ajit Singh arrested. The ASI, however, chose to take the law in his own hand and took the revenge in the manner described above.

While the SSP has recommended a magisterial in enquiry, the activists of the CPI and some concerned people from the village have requested the DIG, Police, Border Range and the District Magistrate to order registration of case under Section 304 IPC. However, the law has yet not taken its course

The above account is based on the inquiries done by the activists of the CPI and some villagers and is also made public in my statement dated September 9, 1996.