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Police keep foisting new cases
on Bhai Daljit Singh Bittu
Now, he
has been sent in judicial custody in Lily murder case
WSN Bureau
 LUDHIANA: Indian
police establishment seems adamant on not mending its ways, and the
passive silence of the ruling Akali Dal is an indicator of active
encouragement. At a time when the Indian police has egg on its face
with a large number of encounters turning out to be fake, and
exactly when a magisterial probe has brought out how people were
killed in cold blood and then passed off as hardcore terrorists in
Gujarat, the Punjab Police seems to have learnt no lessons and is
continuing to embroil youthful Sikh leadership in one case after the
other.
The sole purpose
clearly seems to be to prevent them from participation in legitimate
democratic politics and to exclude them from the opinion making
spheres since this emerging Sikh leadership was attracting large
numbers of the Sikh sangat, particularly the youth.
Just when a
judge refused to extend the police remand of Bhai Daljit Singh Bittu
and his associates and sent them to jail for 14 days in judicial
custody, the Punjab Police came out with another case, and presented
Bhai Bittu in the court of Mansa's local judge Dimple Walia in the
Lily murder case.
Lily was a
follower of the Sirsa Dera sadh who was killed by unidentified
gunmen a few days back. Police seems to have found it convenient to
embroil Bhai Bittu in the case since he and his party has been
aggressively fighting the inroads being made in Punjab by the Sirsa
dera head. Incidentally, the Sirsa dera head is a prime accused in
multiple rape and murder cases being probed by the CBI, India's top
sleuthing agency, on the directions of none other than the Supreme
Court.
Bhai Bittu was
sent into police remand on September 13 by the court for one day.
Next day, he was sent into 14 days of judicial custody. On Tuesday,
in a hush hush manner, he was being shifted to the
Amritsar
jail but the officials were not confirming the move.
Bhai Bittu's
counsels Lakhwinder Singh and Ajit Singh Bhangoo said Bhai Bittu was
brought without any prior notice from the
Ludhiana
jail to Mansa and was presented at the residence of the judge. The
police claim that a case was registered against the Akali Dal (Panch
Pardhani) president as FIR number 61 under sections 302, 34 IPC,
120-B and Arms Act.
In the
meanwhile, in a separate case, Prof Gurvir Singh was also brought
from the Bathinda jail on a production warrant to Mansa and he too
was sent into one day police remand.
Bhai Daljit
Singh Bittu continues to be under arrest since Friday, August 28,
and are widely being accused by the police through motivated leaks
to the media and pliable sections of journalists as somehow linked
with efforts to revive militancy in the state. Ironically, after the
arrests, the CM, the Deputy CM and the DGP are on record saying that
there was not even a remote chance of revival of militancy.
Large sections
of Sikh community feel Bhai Bittu has been a target in recent times
because of the upcoming SGPC elections as the rulingh Akali Dal
fears that he will be a major challenge in the SGPC elections. The
Akali Dal (Badal) has virtually lost its panthic constituency and
has turned itself into a mainstream secular party with no
pretensions to speak for the welfare of the Sikhs. The fact that its
top leadership is in a vice-like grip of the brahmanical Hindutva
ideology and Badals call the Akali Dal-BJP alliance as eternal and
fraternal is not lost on the Sikh sangat.
Daljit Singh
Bittu has been operating within the democratic paradigm of politics
for many years now but the police has now claimed that the
investigations into the activities of one Balbir Singh Bhootna,
caught in an encounter in Ludhiana, have revealed that he was in
touch with Bittu. Such police actions and claims in the past have
often been blown to smithereens in the courts but by then, much
damage is already done.
Bhai Daljit
Singh Bittu is someone who has first hand seen the dark days of the
ruthless suppression of Sikh aspirational movement and has since
then been seen as a leader with a certain amount of ideological
clarity. In recent times, he had taken the lead in the fight against
derawad in
Punjab
and has been seen in the forefront as far as implementing the edict
of the Akal Takht was concerned regarding the Sirsa dera head.
Apart from
Bittu, his associated Jaspal Singh Manjhpur, Jaswinder Singh and
Navdeep Singh were also arrested from
Ludhiana
and are now in judicial remand.
16
September 2009
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