Five days after Punjab IAS officer Kahan Singh Pannu was assaulted by the pilgrims in Uttarakhand and the video grab was later uploaded on the cyber space, Punjab Police on Friday registered a case in Mohali’s Cyber Crime Police Station.
The first information report (FIR) was registered on the complaint by Pannu under sections 66-A of the Information Technology (IT) Act for sending offensive or false messages.
Besides, sections 295-A of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) for injuring or defiling place of worship, with intent to insult the religion of any class has also been revoked, along with 298 for uttering words, etc with deliberate intent to wound religious feelings, 500 for defamation, and 120-B for criminal conspiracy.
All along been indicating at the
“conspiracy” in attack on him, the Director General of School Education Pannu has already made it clear that he would go ahead to file the complaint if asked to do so. Pannu, in his complaint, has stated that under a deep-rooted conspiracy, some mischievous persons by uploading the video of his manhandling at Gobind Ghat on social networking sites — You Tube and Facebook — have defamed and insulted him in the society and hurt religious sentiments.
“The case has been registered on Pannu’s complaint, and further investigations in the matter are in progress,” said Sanjiv Kalra, Punjab Inspector General (Security). The Punjab Government is already urging the functionaries of YouTube formally to remove the nine-minute clip of Sikh pilgrims' assaulting Pannu at Gobind Ghat during the flood-rescue operations in Uttarakhand.
Pannu had pointed out that “certain things” indicated that the assault was pre-planned. “The man who captured the incident on his video camera had started focusing on me even before I had approached the pilgrims who attacked me without any provocation,” said Pannu.
He said the clip did not focus on any attacker, raising suspicion. “I am amazed as to how the attackers stranded at Gobind Ghat for days were able to charge their video camera and upload the clip on a popular site,” said Pannu.
A day before, Pannu has submitted a detailed report to Punjab Chief Secretary Rakesh Singh on the incident in which a group of Sikh pilgrims in Uttarakhand had manhandled him on Sunday when he was supervising the relief and rescue operations in the flood-ravaged hill State.
Chief Secretary Rakesh Singh has forward the report to the Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, and also the State Director General of Police (DGP) Sumedh Singh Saini, who may treat it as Pannu's complaint to get on with the investigation.