Chandigarh – More than a year after young Engineering Student Jaspal Singh, was killed when the police opened fire to disperse peaceful protestors in Gurdaspur, a compensation of Rs 5 lakh has been given to his family. Another sum of Rs 2 lakh has been handed over to injured Ranjit Singh from the Chief Minister’s Fund. This was revealed as a petition filed in public interest on the issue came up for pronouncement this morning.
Disposing of the petition filed by NGO Lawyers for Human Rights International, a Division Bench of Acting Chief Justice Ashutosh Mohunta and Justice Harinder Singh Sidhu refused to express opinion on the status report submitted in the matter, which said bullets were fired in the air.
The development took place after Navkiran Singh disputed the conclusions made in the status report “that no bullet was fired by targeting anybody and bullets were fired only in the air”. Speaking for the Bench, Justice Sidhu said: “It is not for this court to opine on the merits of the conclusion reached in the status report. It has been settled by the Supreme Court in a large number of cases that once the final report under Section 173 of the CrPC is submitted in a competent court, the matter is to proceed further as per the procedure laid down in the CrPC.”
Bhai Jaspal Singh was peacefully protesting against the impending execution of Balwant Singh Rajoana. The Bench asserted: “As per the procedure mandated by the SC, if the court of CJM, Gurdaspur, the competent court where the final report has been submitted, decides not to take cognisance of the offence and drop the proceedings, the concerned court must give notice to the informant and provide him an opportunity to be heard.”