Aspirants ?lathicharged?, policemen deny claim

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, December 4

About 60 aspirants from Moga, Bathinda and other districts of Punjab, who had come to the city to lodge a protest over the alleged anomalies in the Punjab Police recruitment, faced police action as they tried to obstruct the entrance of the PAP Complex on Saturday.

While the youth alleged that they had been lathicharged, the police officials have denied using any force on them. Two girls – Charanjit Kaur from Bathinda and Gurpreet from Mohali - were among few boys who got injured. The girls were immediately shifted to the Civil Hospital here for treatment. Four youth, who reportedly tried to oppose the police, were detained for the whole day at the New Baradari police station.

The local candidates, who had been lodging the protest for the past two days, had yesterday announced that there would be no agitation for Saturday and Sunday and that they had given the district administration two-day time to form a three-member committee of civil services officials to look into the anomalies in the police recruitment.

Charanjit said she had been a part of protests in Bathinda and thought that lodging protest in Jalandhar would be more effective. “So we came here this morning and decided to lodge a protest outside the PAP Complex where physical fitness trials were being held for the youth since yesterday. It had been just 15 minutes since we sat down that there that the cops gathered in large numbers and started pulling, shoveling and canecharging us to remove us from the site. They left us and three-four boys badly bruised”, she rued.

DCP Jagmohan Singh denied any use of cane on the youth. “They were obstructing the entry of the eligible aspirants inside the PAP Complex for the trials. We could not allow any dharna at the gates and hence we got them lifted. Since they have violated law by obstructing the process of recruitment, we will also lodge an FIR against them,” he said.

The Punjab Police is in the process of recruitment of constables. The agitating students have said that they had appeared for the written test and were told that all those general candidates who would score above 30 and SC candidates who would score above 25 marks would be called for appearing in the physical fitness test but later changed the criteria. They said they were now calling all general candidates scoring above 70 marks for the physical fitness test.

Chairperson of the Punjab Police Recruitment Board ADGP Gurpreet Deo has denied all allegations of anomalies being levelled by the youth.