Parking dispute turns violent, man’s two fingers chopped off

A fight over car parking turned so ugly at Bashirpura last evening that neighbourers brought out swords and chopped two fingers of the right hand of a car owner.

The barbarism did not just end there. The family of victim Surinder Singh (39) has alleged that the attackers kept the fingers hidden after the incident and returned these to them much later, owing to which these could not be surgically attached.

Surinder Singh runs a shop of hardware and paints at Bashirpura. They have their house in the same locality. “Since there was sparking in electricity wires, a PSPCL lineman had advised us to park the car elsewhere. So we took it to the shop and parked it there around 9 pm on Tuesday evening. The assailants, who have their house in front of our shop, came out and smashed the windowpanes of our car", said Surinder’s father Harvinder Singh, adding that the fight had been settled after negotiations.

Harvinder said, “Last night again, they created a ruckus. They came out with swords and attacked me, my son and my son-in-law Lakhvir Singh. While I suffered minor injuries, they tried to chop of Surinder’s right hand. After the assault, we just wrapped up Surinder’s hand with a cloth and rushed him to Joshi Hospital. Doctors said that two fingers were missing in the hand and if these could be found from the spot, these could be attached surgically. Our family members kept looking for Surinder’s fingers at the crime scene but to no avail. Much later, the assailants approached us with his chopped fingers in water for a compromise. By the time we took these fingers to the doctors, the crucial time had already lapsed. The surgery was done but my son has been rendered handicapped as two fingers next to the thumb have been lost."

Harvinder said, “We have been calling the police since the last night but to no avail. They just kept telling us to get the MLR done. It is now after we contacted BJP leader Manoranjan Kalia and he further called up senior police officials that our statement has been recorded." Kalia said that the response time of the police has been often found to be very late which causes huge harrassment to the victims.

Jalandhar