Daughter dies as ASI drives car into canal

A Batala police ASI drove his car into the Upper Bari Doab Canal (UBDC) following which his daughter Harmanpreet Kaur died due to drowning.

SSP Daljinder Singh Dhillon termed the incident as “highly suspicious” and said the police were investigating several angles. “We are looking into the sequence of events that led to the incident. Prima facie, there appears to be some foul play. It was with a lot of effort that the car had to be taken out of the swirling waters of the UBDC,” he said. The incident took place near Kotli on the outskirts of the city.

The police said Germanjit Singh had gone to his sister’s house at nearby Biyanpur village where Harmanpreet had been staying. On the way back, he took the car to a secluded spot and later drove it into the canal. Senior officials say the ASI took this step after he had a tiff with his daughter. The ASI is recuperating in a private hospital in Pathankot. His condition is said to be serious.

Passers-by informed the police after the incident. About 30 police personnel reached the site and started making efforts to pull the car out of the canal. However, all their efforts failed. A crane was requisitioned from Pathankot city. It was after three hours that the vehicle was taken out and the body of Harmanpreet, which had got entangled in the car, was recovered.

“We could not retrieve the car manually because it had gone far too deep into the canal. We will register a case once our investigations are complete,” said a senior officer.

SSP Dhillon said the preliminary investigations proved the incident occurred under “highly suspicious circumstances because there was no reason for the ASI to stray from the main road and take the car to a far-away place before driving it into the canal. It is indeed a deliberate attempt on part of the ASI.”