HC pulls up Punjab Police for delay in registering FIR on Colonel’s complaint

The Punjab and Haryana high court on Tuesday questioned Punjab Police on the delay in registering an FIR after the assault on Colonel Pushpinder Singh Bath and his son Angad in Patiala around midnight on March 13 and sought a detailed affidavit.

The court wanted to know why the first case was registered on the complaint of the dhaba owner when the medical report of the victims was available. The court gave the Punjab government two days to provide details on who tried to delay the registration of the criminal case.

The court was hearing Colonel Bath’s plea, seeking the transfer of the probe into the FIR registered by Patiala police in the assault case to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

The petition also sought a stay into the probe by Punjab Police and examination of the role of senior police officers in delaying the registration of the FIR.

The case was taken up by the bench of justice Sandeep Moudgil, which issued a notice to Punjab and the CBI and sought a detailed affidavit from the state within two days. During the hearing, Colonel Bath’s counsel showed videos to the bench, including one in which some policemen are purportedly admitting their mistake and apologising to Jaswinder Kaur, the wife of the army officer.

Colonel Bath and his son were allegedly assaulted by 12 Punjab Police personnel over a parking dispute on the intervening night of March 13 and 14, when they were at a roadside eatery near Government Rajindra Hospital in Patiala.

The family said that when the two were standing outside their car and having food, the police personnel in civvies approached them and asked the colonel to move his vehicle so that they could park theirs. When the colonel objected to their rude tone, one of the policemen punched him, and soon all of them began thrashing him and his son. The colonel’s arm was broken, and his son suffered a cut on his head.

The plea alleges his wife was pressured by the policemen to strike a compromise and further claimed that some cops admitted in a video call to his wife that they were under the influence of alcohol at the time of the incident.

Police took 8 days to register case on Col, family’s complaint

The plea claims that for eight days an FIR was not registered by the police even when the petitioner and his family were the first to report the incident, the FIR registered on March 14 was on the statement of the dhaba owner. The March 22 FIR, with him as complainant, was registered only after widespread public outcry and protests, it says.

“Dilatory tactics are being adopted by the Punjab Police to proceed further with the investigation which is evident from the fact that on reporting the incident, instead of registering FIR only an order of suspension of the accused was passed by the police, no attempt was made to apprehend them but instead a mere order of inquiry of the incident by an executive magistrate was passed,” it says.

The petitioner, who is deputed at a sensitive posting in the army headquarters, suffered not only personal indignity but also a breach of institutional integrity and national security as his official army I-card and mobile phone, possibly containing sensitive information were forcibly taken by the accused posing a serious risk that merits a central level investigation, it added.

Underlining that the case has a “wide-ranging ramification”, the CBI should be entrusted with the probe.

The plea also demands that directions be issued to preserve relevant CCTV footage and tower locations of persons concerned in the case and that steps be taken for the protection of life and liberty of the petitioner, his family and eyewitnesses.