Chandigarh, November 19
Reacting to a news-item "Pirzada’s brothers on wild hunt" and its continuation as "Babu’s brothers on wild hunt" carried in these columns on November 8, IAS officer Gurnihal Singh Pirzada has claimed that the report was published without verifying or crosschecking the facts.

In a communication to The Tribune, Mr Pirzada has further claimed that none of the three brothers, against whom such serious allegations have been made, were asked for their comments or opinion in the matter. Comments were not even sought from the departments concerned at the local level.

Describing the news-report as "highly malicious", he has maintained that it was "more of a judgment than a news-item concerning public interest and the common citizen". He added, "I appreciate, as much as anyone, that no one is above law, and this yardstick should be applied even more strictly to the civil servants. However, to publish unsubstantiated reports with an attempt to tarnish the image of a citizen is deplorable…"

"If my brother (Yadavinder Singh Pirzada) has been hunting and has violated the law, he must be brought to the book. To the best of my knowledge, he is an avid nature lover and I would not believe what has been written against him," he has stated. "The photograph published in the newspaper is very old (as can be visualised from his appearance) and probably this wild boar was hunted down legally as `vermin’ when it was legal to shoot this animal and not necessary by Yadavinder".

He has added that in any case there was no need to drag him or his mother into the matter. Moreover, he had never hunted and his younger brother Mr Gurlal Singh Pirzada rarely visited Chandigarh.

The allegations, he has claimed, have otherwise also "been investigated, on more occasions than one, by two Senior Superintendents of Police, as also at the level of an Inspector-General of Police and the Director-General of Police, and found to be false".

The mention of the names of Mr Gurnihal Singh Pirzada and his mother in the report was unwarranted. The inconvenience caused to both of them is regretted. — Editor