M A I N   N E W S

Case against Begowal mob
TV crew leaves for Amritsar 
Tribune News Service

JALANDHAR, Nov 23 — Rowdy supporters of the SGPC chief, Bibi Jagir Kaur, today finally allowed the TV crew of a Delhi-based company to leave Begowal in the wee hours.

The Kapurthala police has registered a case and initiated investigations into the incident.

Hundreds of supporters of Bibi Jagir Kaur had virtually taken the TV crew — reporter Bhawana and her three-member team — hostage in the house of Kamaljit Singh, who claims to be the husband of Bibi Jagir Kaur’s deceased daughter Harpreet.

The supporters of the Bibi were demanding possession and destruction of tapes carrying shots of the Bibi’s dera, Kamaljit’s house and his interview regarding the sequence of events leading to the death of Harpreet on April 20.

The TV crew remained confined to Kamaljit’s house for hours, despite the presence of police and civil officers who tried in vain to persuade the mob to relent.

Some angry residents decided to end the “siege” in case shots of the tapes were shown to them. After this was done, the mob was pacified and it let the crew members to leave the village along with the Deputy Commissioner and the Senior Superintendent of Police. The district administration provided security to the team till it reached Subhanpur from where it left for Amritsar.

Kamaljit today alleged that nothing much was done by the police and district officials to ensure protection to his family from the mob. “Rather senior officials kept blaming us for the entire episode and questioned us why we had allowed ourselves to be interviewed,” said Kamaljit’s sister Manjit.

The Deputy Commissioner, Mr V.K. Singh, said the administration did not want to use force, as most of those in the mob were women. He said the incident was an outcome of a misunderstanding among supporters of the Bibi, who mistook Bhawana to be a reporter of another channel which according to them had repeatedly telecast “anti-Bibi” films. “The problem was that most of them were illiterate and not amenable to reason.”

The police has registered a case under Sections 341/147 and 149 of the IPC on a complaint by Bhawana, who has not identified any of the accused. Mr Iqbal Singh, SSP, said a probe had been ordered and the statement of Kamaljit’s mother, Balwinder Kaur, recorded.

CBI seeks details
Tribune News Service

JALANDHAR, Nov 23 — The CBI has sought details from the Punjab Police regarding the incident of hooliganism by supporters of the SGPC chief, Bibi Jagir Kaur, at Begowal last night.

The CBI, which is scheduled to interrogate the Bibi at its Delhi headquarters tomorrow for the second time this week, has asked the Punjab Police and the Kapurthala SSP to furnish details of the incident and submit a copy of the FIR registered by the Kapurthala police on the complaint of Bhawana, the reporter who faced the hostile mob at Begowal.