Chandigarh: The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) leadership has claimed that the FIR lodged by the Amritsar Police in the alleged bid to assassinate Sukhbir Badal has been “carefully worded” to let off the accused, ex-militant Narain Singh Chaura.
Releasing a copy of the FIR at a press conference in Chandigarh Monday, SAD general secretary Bikram Singh Majithia said the police, in the FIR, stated that the alleged attacker was a “devotee” who had come to pay obeisance at the Golden Temple, and that his pistol “went off” during a “scuffle” as he approached Badal with the intention to attack him.
Majithia further alleged that the FIR does not mention that Chaura is a former militant facing multiple terror cases, nor does it refer to the fact that he had been moving around in the Golden Temple complex a day before the attack, and that he acted in a premeditated fashion.
Former Punjab deputy chief minister Sukhbir Badal was attacked by Chaura outside the Golden Temple on 4 December while he was on “guard duty”, in accordance with the ‘punishment’ meted out to him by the Akal Takht last week.
Majithia claimed that the text of the FIR is barely a few sentences. The operative portion of the FIR says, “Former deputy chief minister Sukhbir Singh Badal was present outside the Golden Temple in order to abide by the punishment issued by the Akal Takht. Suddenly a person from among the devotees going to pay obeisance at the Golden Temple took out a pistol from his pocket and was about to attack Badal.”
It adds: “The alert security persons on duty immediately overpowered the person and in the ensuing scuffle, a fire in the air was shot from that pistol. When the policemen on duty brought him to the side and asked his name he said that he was Narain Singh son of Chanan Singh of village Chaura in Dera Baba Nanak (sic).”
The FIR has been registered under section 109 (attempt to murder) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) and sections 27 and 25 of the Arms Act.
Majithia said the FIR was a “shameful” document, adding that it was clear the Amritsar Police were trying to downplay the assassination bid in an attempt to help the perpetrators of the crime.
ThePrint reached Amritsar Police Commissioner Gurpreet Bhullar and ADGP Sukhchain Singh Gill, spokesperson of the Punjab Police, for a response to the Akali Dal’s allegations via calls and messages. The report will be updated if and when their responses are received.
Also Read: Did arms training, wrote ‘constitution of Khalistan’—past interviews of Badal’s attacker Chaura
Two more people may be involved, SAD claims
Majithia further alleged that the police also overlooked the presence of Dharam Singh alias Baba Dharma, an active member of the Khalistan Commando Force (KCF), who was seen with Chaura in CCTV footage of the Golden Temple complex in the days leading up to the attack.
“Why has Baba Dharma not been arrested or called in for investigation in the case?” the Akali leader asked.
Releasing video clips, Majithia alleged Dharma and Chaura were closely following Sukhbir Badal a day before the attack. In the footage, Majithia said, the duo were also seen following other Akali leaders including himself into the langar hall where they were performing seva according to the punishment given to them by the Akal Takht.
The videos, Majithia further alleged, also show the presence of a third person with Dharma and Chaura, who had come to the Golden temple a day before the attack but is yet to be identified by the police. “The police are saying that this is the work of a lone wolf, a person who carried out the act alone and without the help of any other person. We have shown that he did not act alone but the police are not ready to act against the other two people.”
The SAD general secretary said he was surprised at the way the Amritsar Police functioned. “In 2013, when Chaura was arrested by the Mohali Police, the current Amritsar police commissioner, Gurpreet Singh Bhullar, was the SSP of Mohali, and he was part of the team that had interrogated Chaura. He is well aware of the antecedents of Chaura and the fact that the Badals were on his hit list all these years.”
Majithia said that within two hours of the alleged attack on Sukhbir Badal, which took place at 9.30 am, Bhullar gave a statement to the media saying that the arrested accused has been identified as a former militant. “Then how did it happen that in the FIR that was lodged after 3 pm, he (Chaura) has been referred to as one of the devotees visiting the Golden Temple?”
Yet, the FIR has made it sound like the attack was not a premeditated move but “something that happened suddenly”, he added.
‘Shift probe out of Amritsar’
Punjab and Haryana High Court lawyer and SAD spokesperson Arshdeep Kler meanwhile said that the FIR does not clearly state that Chaura took out his weapon with an intention to kill Sukhbir Badal and while he was being overpowered, the bullet hit the wall of the Golden Temple. “When it is not clear that there was an intention to kill, how can the police later prove that it was an attempt to murder?” Said Kler.
Kler added that the police has also not mentioned in the FIR that Jasbir Singh, the Punjab Police security personnel who saved Sukhbir Badal that day, was the one who apprehended Chaura just before he was about to shoot at Sukhbir.
“The FIR is clearly an attempt to make the crime as a preparatory activity and not an actual assassination bid,” said Majithia.
A few days after the attack, Majithia had released a series of video clips of the Golden Temple complex in which Chaura is purportedly seen doing a recce of the premises a day before the attack. The footage, according to Majithia, also shows that Harpal Singh Randhawa, a superintendent of police on duty in the Golden Temple complex, met Chaura a day before the attack and shook hands with him. In the video clips, Majithia showed that when the attack took place, Harpal Singh was purportedly sitting inside one of the offices of the SGPC and having tea.
On Monday Majithia said Harpal Singh should be arrested for his alleged complicity in the case.
The SAD leader demanded that the probe be shifted out of Amritsar. “I have yesterday requested state police chief Gaurav Yadav to withdraw and transfer the same to himself or to DGP Prabodh Kumar,” he said.
(Edited by Gitanjali Das)
