M A I N   N E W S

MURDER of a policeman
I asked cops to come along, they didn’t: Relative
PK Jaiswar/TNS

Amritsar, December 10
Mystery continues to shroud as to why slain Assistant Sub-Inspector Ravinderpal Singh did not leave the crime scene for about 20 minutes after being first shot at. One of the relatives of the ASI, who was supposed to have taken him away in his car, spoke to The Tribune about those crucial 20 minutes.

While preferring not to be named, he said it took the ASI and him some time to come to terms with what had happened. Rana, meanwhile, had left the scene after firing at the ASI for the first time.

The relative said: “Minutes later, Ravinderpal asked me to start his car and first take him to the police station and subsequently the hospital. However, his vehicle didn’t start due to some snag.” He said the people who had gathered there told them that they had called an ambulance.

“We kept waiting for the ambulance for about 10 minutes. Then Ravinderpal told me to try start his vehicle again. It then somehow started, but as soon as I reversed it towards the main road, Rana and his men returned. The ASI’s daughter Robinjeet screamed that they had returned.”

The relative said just when the ASI saw Rana , he asked him to head for the police station, saying he would stay back and stop Rana from leaving the scene again. He said he reached the Chheharta police station within moments and pleaded to the policemen there to accompany him to the crime scene.

However, they told him that they had already sent a police team there. “They didn’t respond to my repeated pleas to come with me. When I returned, Rana and his accomplices had fled after shooting Ravinderpal for the second time.”

This is the first eyewitness account dwelling on why the ASI stayed back at the crime scene even after being shot once. While the ASI’s daughter Robinjeet Kaur is too shocked to narrate the chain of events before the media, the FIR lodged at the Chheharta police station doesn’t even mention that Rana went back to get fresh ammunition while the ASI stayed there at the crime scene. As per the FIR, the accused fired at the ASI following a heated argument. “A gunshot hit the ASI’s leg, while some hit his Ford Figo (PB-10-DE-TEMP-6998) vehicle. When Ravinderpal got into his car to start it, Rana tried to fire at him again, but he ran out of ammunition,” said the FIR.

First complaint

Robinjeet first filed a complaint about eve-teasing by Rana and his aides at the Chheharta police station on December 1. However, according to the dismissed SHO of Chheharta, Ashwini Kumar, it was a verbal complaint, in which she alleged that four persons stopped her scooter in the middle of the road near Chheharta and abused and humiliated her. Kumar claimed that though she didn’t know the names of the accused, she told him their vehicle number which he flashed in a wireless message. However, he said when he asked her to file a written complaint, she told him that “her father, who is also a cop, will get in touch with him, but that never happened”.

Cong dharna today

PPCC Chief Capt Amarinder Singh and CLP leader Sunil Jakhar will stage a dharna on Tuesday to lodge their protest against the ASI’s killing in Amritsar. According to Amritsar rural Congress chief Harpartap Ajnala, all the party MLAs and activists from all the Assembly segments of Amritsar district will participate in the dharna.