State police remained on the back foot
Thursday, 27/12/2012
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The Punjab police remained on the defensive during 2012, being at the receiving end in more ways than one. Several cases were reported in which state police personnel were killed or thrashed, besides being accused by the public of acting under political pressure.
On February 2, deputy superintendent of police ( DSP) Balraj Singh Gill and his woman friend were murdered at a farmhouse near Ludhiana. What’s worse, the police found it a tough case to crack and groped in the dark for a considerable time.
Three days after the double murder, assistant sub- inspector ( ASI) Harbhajan Singh was killed near Barnala by a gang of robbers.
In April, a YouTube video featured a drunken constable being beaten publicly by a shopkeeper in Jalandhar.
The year’s last month began on a night marish note for the Punjab police when ASI Ravinder Pal Singh was killed in Amritsar by Akali leader Ranjit Singh Rana on December 5 while he was trying to protect his daughter from eve- teasers. Four days later, traffic cop Gurnam Singh was beaten up by traffic violators in Gurdaspur.
On December 23, woman constable Gagandeep Kaur was harassed at Malan village of Muktsar district by eve- teasers during a public function. When her senior, ASI Ram Singh, came to her rescue, he, too, was thrashed and his turban was removed. The next morning, the accused again allegedly attacked Ram Singh and the police party when it raided a dera near Bhalaiana village of Gidderbaha.
On the night of December 24, assistant inspector general SS Mand was beaten and his leg was broken at a bar in Ludhiana.
The police also faced public anger in the case of kidnapping of a minor girl from Faridkot in October. The cops did eventually manage to trace the girl and arrest the accused, but not before taking one U- turn after another due to various “pulls and pressures”. Even t heir efforts to pass off the abduction as an elopement came a cropper.
