Victims’ families running from pillar to post for justice

Tribune News Service

Bathinda, July 10

It has been almost one and a half years since seven persons, including three children, were killed in a car blast that took place during the poll campaign of Congress candidate Harminder Singh Jassi in the Maur Assembly segment on January 31 last year, but the families, which lost their loved ones in the tragedy, are still running from pillar to post for justice.

Talking to The Tribune, Dr Balbir Singh, who lost his grandson Japsimran Singh, 14, said, “We have lost faith in the Punjab Police. There has been no headway in the probe for the last few months. We have already moved the Punjab and Haryana High Court, pleading that the case be handed over to the CBI now.”

He lamented that they knocked the doors of various political leaders, including Finance Minister Manpreet Badal, Deputy Speaker Ajaib Singh Bhatti, OSD to CM Ankit Bansal and most recently PPCC chief Sunil Jakhar, but nothing was done to in this regard for the families who lost their near and dear ones in the blast. He said the affected families feel that there may be a political pressure at work, which is why investigation by the Punjab Police was not moving ahead. He said they had now pinned their hopes on the judiciary.

Incidentally, there has been no progress in the Maur blast investigation ever since the police booked two persons having links with Dera Sacha Sauda in the case in February. Gurtej Singh Kala, in-charge of a workshop at the Dera Sacha Sauda headquarters in Sirsa, and Amrik Singh, a former security guard of the dera chief, were booked. A lookout circular was issued for both of them a couple of days after they were named in the case.

According to four witnesses, the work of assembling the Maruti car, used in the blast, was undertaken in the presence of Gurtej, while Amrik used to regularly visit the B-workshop (a special workshop used only for modifying the dera chief’s costly cars). Subsequently, call records revealed that Amrik had a word with a shop owner in which he asked him for a 9-watt battery.

It had come to light in the initial stages of the probe that the battery was purchased from Sirsa while some of the mobile calls also hinted towards Sirsa link. The police found the first clue from the shop from where this battery was purchased. Now, the arrest of Gurtej and Amrik would reveal as to why they did so and who was the mastermind of the blast.