A day after former Chief Minister’s assassin Balwant Singh Rajoana allegedly thrashed a senior journalist inside Patiala jail, the Punjab Government on Sunday ordered a probe into the incident.
Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal has asked the Additional Chief Secretary (Home) to conduct a thorough probe into the incident in Central Jail Patiala.
“The Chief Minister has directed the Additional Chief Secretary (Home) to get into the bottom of the case and submit the inquiry report at the earliest,” a Government spokesperson said.
Rajoana allegedly thrashed senior journalist Kanwar Sandhu on Saturday during their meeting in the prison. Sandhu had gone to the Patiala jail to interview Rajoana, currently lodged at Patiala jail facing gallows in Beant Singh assassination case, who turned angry over some issue and thrashed the journalist.
Sandhu, along with former cop Gurmeet Singh Pinky, had gained access to the high-security prison to “interview” Rajoana.
Already, two officials of the Patiala central jail, including an assistant superintendent of jails, were placed under suspension after
the incident.
ADGP (Prisons) RP Meena had, a day before, ordered a fact-finding probe following the incident.
Sandhu had denied that he had been manhandled by Rajoana. “It was only a heated argument, the rest is rumour,” he said.
Running the Free Media Initiative, Sandhu had interviewed Pinky on various issues and run a series, titled ‘Confessions of a Punjab Police Cop’. In one of the interviews, Pinky had alleged that Rajoana had disclosed to him the plans of Jagtar Singh Hawara and the others involved in Beant Singh assassination case of escaping from Chandigarh’s Burail jail by blasting with the RDX.
Pinky had claimed that on this information, the RDX was recovered and the jailbreak plan was foiled.
Sandhu, in his Facebook post, termed the incident as “unfortunate”, adding that Rajoana’s sister Kamaldeep Kaur approached her saying that he should have taken Rajoana’s version on the issues concerning him in interviews with Pinky.
Sandhu claimed that Kamaldeep offered to arrange his meeting with Rajoana in jail, and also insisted to bring Gurmeet Singh Pinky along so that he could be face to face with Rajoana.
“When I met Rajoana, …an argument ensued and when I noticed that Rajoana and the other person were getting violent, I tried to move away. The jail officials intervened and lest the
situation should get out of hand, I moved out of the jail,” Sandhu said in his Facebook post.
Meanwhile, Kamaldeep Kaur, on her Facebook page, accused Sandhu of indulging in “yellow journalism” as part of a deep-rooted conspiracy.
She had also released a letter written by Rajoana on her Facebook page, which says, “Sandhu, in league with Pinky, is working at the behest of the Government, and I am not answerable to him.” Rajoana said that he never met Pinky, as claimed by the latter in an interview to Sandhu.