COURT TROUBLE FOR CM IN US: COPS QUESTION PETITIONER’S KIN
Sunday, 12/08/2012
http://paper.hindustantimes.com/epaper/viewer.aspx
BARNALA: Barely a day after a court in Wisconsin, US, summoned visiting Punjab chief minister Parkash Singh Badal in a case of promoting police officers allegedly involved in extra-judicial killings, the Barnala police are learnt to have put a close watch at Kotha Gill, 12 km from here, the native village of Jagtar Singh, one of the petitioners.
Tapa deputy superintendent of police (DSP) Harvinder Singh Khaira along with station house officer Harvinder Singh on Friday evening visited the village to question the family of Jagtar.
The police also registered the statements of Jagtar’s father Chand Singh and his brother Chamkaur Singh. Joginder Singh, a neigbour, was also quizzed about Jagtar, who was declared a proclaimed offender (PO) for jumping bail in the NDPS Act in 2008.
Jagtar, who was an active member of the Shiromani Akali Dal-Amritsar or SAD(A), fled to the US in 2009, said police sources.
A Wisconsin district court issued the summons to Badal on August 8 on the basis of a petition by New York-based human rights group ‘Sikhs for Justice’ and individuals who identified themselves as proKhalistan and members of Simranjit Singh Mann’s SAD (A) that advocates “separate homeland for the Sikhs”. Badal is in Wisconsin to attend a wedding and is scheduled to return on August 13.
Senior superintendent of police Surjit Singh confirmed the police’s visit to Jagtar’s village. “The motive was to gather fresh information regarding him, as he is a PO in a case for the past many years and had links with terrorists in the past.”
About the questioning, Jagtar’s brother Chamkaur said the officer sought complete information about how and when his brother moved abroad. “The officials have told that if needed, they would call us for further queries at the local police station.”
“This is for the first time that police have visited our house after Jagtar went to the US,” Chamkaur told HT.
