Chandigarh: Concluding its inquiry into Col Pushpinder Singh Bath assault case, a departmental inquiry conducted by the Punjab police has recommended severe disciplinary measures against four accused inspectors and two other officials including deduction in service and stay on promotions.
It may be recalled that while the Punjab police has not made any arrests so far despite the case being over four months old, the Punjab and Haryana High Court has already handed over the case to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) which has registered two separate FIRs in the case, a few days ago.
According to media reports, the inquiry has recommended three years of service deduction for the four accused officers and no salary increments, no promotions and no salary additions for the same period for them. It has also been recommended that they will remain suspended and if reinstated, will be posted only outside Patiala.
It may be recalled that in a shocking incident, the serving army officer Col Bath and his son were brutally beaten up on March 13 night, by four inspector-rank Punjab police officers and their subordinates over a parking dispute without provocation, all in public view and under CCTV surveillance in Patiala, who also snatched his ID card and mobile phone and issuing threats of fake encounters.
Col Bath in his petition before the high court said that the investigation of the case was transferred from Patiala police to Chandigarh police on April 2 last. ``It is being stated with utmost disappointment that even despite lapse of more than three and half months of the registration of the FIR and lapse of three months since the investigation has been handed over the Chandigarh police, neither a single accused has been arrested so far nor any accused has been associated with the investigation’’, he said.
Col Bath held in his petition that the facts pointed towards pressure being exerted upon the Chandigarh police by the ``top brass’’ of the Punjab police. The high court transferred the case to CBI earlier this month.
