Ludhiana – Amrik Singh, father of Avtar Singh Gola who was shot by police cat-turned-commando Gurmeet Singh Pinki in 2001, has accused the city police of shielding Pinky.
According to Amrik Singh, Gurmeet Pinky, a militant-turned-informer-turned-policeman, had threatened him of dire consequences and told him to withdraw the writ petition filed in the Punjab and Haryana High Court. Amrik said the incident took place on September 20 last year when he was heading towards Cemetery Road in Civil Lines. Pinky, along with his gunmen intercepted him and told him to withdraw the writ petition.
“He said if I failed to follow his orders, he would shoot me the way he shot my son,” Amrik Singh alleged.
He said he lodged a complaint with the Division No. 8 police. The then SHO, Gurdev Singh, had said the matter would be probed. The police record shows that the SHO had filed the matter stating that Pinky was not in the city on the day of the incident.
The man, the murder
In the 1990s, Pinky converted from being a member of Babbar Khalsa to the role of a police informer. His tip-offs, a senior officer said, led to “some successful encounters and the arrest of some terrorists, which earned him a permanent place in the police”.
Taken in as a special police officer, he got promoted to an inspector. He used to be guarded by men with AK-47 rifles. Nine such bodyguards were with him when the murder took place.
Avtar Singh, 21, also known as Gola, of Ludhiana was shot dead on January 7, 2001. Pinky and his men were sitting on the road and drinking, and Gola asked them to make way. Gola’s father Amrik Singh says he rushed to the scene when he heard the men were beating up Gola and his friends. “Before we could intervene, they shot my only son in front of my eyes. The bullet pierced his skull. They shot at me too,” said Amrik Singh.
On January 19, Pinky surrendered. “Pinky threatened us and the witnesses, some of whom turned hostile. He offered us bribes,” said Amrik Singh.
A Yamuna Nagar court sentenced Pinky on October 17, 2006, while acquitting his companions. Pinky then moved the Punjab and Haryana High Court, which rejected the appeal.