Jallandhar, Punjab (KP) – The recent arrest of Paramjit Singh Dhaddi, Amolak Singh and Jasbir Singh Rode have stirred a new controversy and left the Punjab Police officials in disarray. Jasbir Singh Rode, former Akal Takhat Sahib Jathedar, alleged that the police tried to frame their arrest and implanted the explosives and weapons.
The story line is reminiscent of the setup several years ago against Bhai Balbir Singh, UK. Bhai Balbir Singh was imprisoned in 1999 by the Indian authorities under similar circumstances. An internal investigation conducted by the Intelligence Bureau (I.B) proved that the RDX explosives allegedly ‘found’ upon Balbir Singh were in fact taken from one of their own Storage of Operations Units. After a five year ordeal, Bhai Balbir Singh was aquitted of all charges.
The news of arrest of Paramjit Singh Dhaddi, Amolak Singh and Jasbir Singh Rode were published by many news providers across by country. It was reported that the three were arrested on Sunday from different locations, and many explosives and weapons were attained from them. Upon the arrest, the trio was presented in the court of duty magistrate D. K. Choudhary who sent them on remand for 4 days.
Incidentally after coming in front of media persons, the former Akal Takht Sahib Jathedar Jasbir Singh Rode held that the police had falsely coordinated the arrests from different places. He claimed that all arrests were made from his house on Saturday instead of Sunday, as claimed by the police. He further alleged that all the explosives and weapons were also planted by the police. According to Rode, around 45 men wearing plain clothes had made the arrests forcefully without any warrants.
According to the Jallandhar SSP Naunihal Singh, over 11 KGs of RDX, 11 detonators, four hand grenades, 11 timer devices, two pistols, 100 live cartridges, and a set of walkie-talkie were seized from the supposed convicts. Without giving a second thought, Naunihal Singh also claimed that the three were in process to disrupt the upcoming assembly elections in the state. Interestingly, the announcement of the seized RDX was made without any chemical tests or examinations.
In response to these claims of the SSP, Jasbir Singh Rode alleged that the police had shown that these explosives were recovered from Dhaddi’s village, but in reality, no cops had visited his village Gakhlan as he was not even present there. Rode also lashed out on the police by stating that their arrests were made on orders of N.P.S. Aulakh, former intelligence chief who is a close associate of Parkash Badal.
Jasbir Singh Rode suggested that police’s claims can easily be proven to be phony by inquiring with any villager of Gakhlan. The sarpanch of the village also confirmed Rode claims by stating that the police did not arrest Dhaddi from the village. Jasbir Singh Rode also claimed that he and the other two Singhs were mistreated and tortured by the police before they were even presented in the court.
