Demanding immediate dismissal of Punjab Cabinet Minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa, the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) on Thursday minced no words to alleged that the former Akali Sarpanch Dalbir Dhilwan’s killing in Dera Baba Nanak was a “political murder executed as a part of Minister-gangster-police nexus” to take revenge for a 2004 incident.
“It is a political murder to take revenge for an incident in 2004 when the Jails Minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa’s turban was toppled,” alleged the former Minister Bikram Singh Majithia while questioning the Congress national president Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi for their silence when such atrocities were being committed by their workers and leaders.
Majithia said that there were complaints of booth capturing in Dhilwan village during 2004 parliamentary elections during Randhawa’s visit to the village and in the ensuing scuffle with Dhilwan’s family members, the then chief parliamentary secretary’s turban had been toppled. “Randhawa held Dalbir and his father Sant Singh responsible for this act and threatened Sant that he had lost two sons and would lose another one,” he said.
“Subsequently, in 2004, during the SGPC election, 10 members of Dalbir’s family were arrested on trumped up charges and Dalbir was even tortured. Nothing happened for the next 10 years during the SAD-BJP government, but now in Congress rule, Dalbir was again attacked to take revenge and suffered a horrible death after being shot 15 times and even having his legs cut off,” said Majithia.
Substantiating his claims with the documentary evidence, Majithia asserted that notorious gangster Jaggu Bhaganwanpura, whose mother had the support of the Jails Minister as village’s Panchayat member in Dera Baba Nanak, was flourishing in Congress rule.
Majithia also cited media reports of senior police officials disclosing how Bhagwanpura was using phones in jail and also running an extortion racket from jail with the support of 33 associates. He also cited how the District police was taking great pains to announce that Dhiwan’s “murder” was not a political murder.
“Gurdaspur SSP Opinderjit Ghuman is acting like a Congress spokesman by announcing within 15 minutes of the murder that there is no political motive behind the killing. The SSP is even trying to mislead the people by stating that the murder is due to a land dispute,” said Majithia.
Showing revenue records to prove that that the killers and Dhilwan did not share common boundaries, Majithia said that it was unfortunate that even a day before, the SSP had claimed that a political tinge was being given to the incident even though he had not met the family nor affected an arrest even 72 hours after the incident.
“The truth is that the SSP and the local police are not even ready to record the statement of the victim family. Dhilwan’s son Sandeep had now written to the DGP stating that his father had been murdered by Congressmen under political patronage of Sukhjinder Randhawa and that the local police were not recording the statement of the family,” he said.
Majithia declared that the SAD would not remain silent and would pursue all avenues, including approaching the High Court to ensure justice to Dhilwan’s family.
“We will expose attempts to cover up the political murder of Dalbir besides going to the people and exposing the other such murders including that of Jagmel Singh in Sangrur, Neha Shorey in Mohali and Gurbachan Singh in Gurdaspur besides others,” he said.
Former Finance Minister Parminder Singh Dhindsa said that all recent killings had witnessed a set pattern under which Congress workers had committed a crime and the police had indulged in a cover up exercise.
“Even in the case of dalit Jagmel Singh’s killing, the police did not take any action when he was first beaten up by the same persons and even forced him to enter into a compromise with his oppressors,” he said adding that even after Jagmel’s murder, the police sheltered political persons who were behind it and indulged in a cover up exercise by stating that the victim was mentally unstable besides falsely asserting that it was a Dalit-Zamindar issue.