Case filed five weeks after Army jawan from Uri assaulted, robbed

Officials posted at the Dehlon police station under the Ludhiana Commissionerate may face the music if allegations of harassment levelled by an Army jawan from Rajasthan and posted at Uri in Jammu Kashmir are found true.

The jawan has accused the Dehlon police of shielding miscreants, including staff of a private public transport bus, who had robbed and assaulted him at a deserted place on the Ludhiana-Malerkotla highway on June 1, when he was travelling in the bus on a reserved seat on the fateful night.

While the police had registered an FIR against unidentified persons on Tuesday, the jawan alleged that the police officials concerned had been pressuring him to arrive at an agreement with owners and staff of the bus.

“When they can mediate a compromise between him and bus staff, why did not they name them in the FIR registered after the invention of senior functionaries of my unit,” argued the jawan, identified as Pardeep Rao of Dani Kirpa Rao village of Seekar district in Rajasthan.

Perusal of an FIR registered under Section 307, 115 (2) and 3(5) of revealed that the staff posted at the private bus going to Seekar had dropped the jawan forcibly at a deserted place after he refused to accommodate another unidentified passenger on his reserved sleeper seat.

It was after a few minutes when the jawan was walking on the deserted place on the highway that occupants of an SUV offered to help him board the bus. “When they asked me that they would make me catch the bus, that too without any request from me, I trusted them and got on the SUV after which they assaulted me with weapons and robbed my belongings, including Army ID, two bags, two mobile phones, jewellery and articles worth around Rs 8,000 purchased from canteen and cash worth Rs 20,700,” stated the jawan, adding that the officials at the Dehlon police station had refused to entertain arguing that I should go and get admitted to some hospital for treatment of head injuries the suspects inflicted on me.

The complainant regretted that the officials had made mockery of him during every visit made on instructions of senior functionaries in his unit and the Commissionerate Police, led by CP Swapan Sharma.

Alleging that the investigating police had been harassing him on the instance of the suspects, the complainant alleged that the police had been shielding them since the fateful day. The victim has also urged the higher authorities to get the matter and undue delay in registration of a case probed from a senior official of any other department.

ACP Harjinder Singh Gill said the officials at the Dehlon police station had not brought the issue into the notice of senior functionaries, including him.

“Now when the case has been registered, we will get the sequence of events probed on the basis of circumstantial evidence and to the satisfaction of the complainant,” he said.

Ludhiana