Chandigarh/Mansa: Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) leader and Bathinda MP Harsimrat Kaur Badal on Saturday wrote to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, formally submitting a notice under Rule 223 and seeking his consent to raise a question of breach of privilege and contempt of the House against Mansa Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Vaibhav Chaudhary, according to a SAD release reported by ANI.

Source: ANI via DevDiscourse

Badal alleged that the SSP obstructed her from discharging her duties as an MP and trivialised her grave concerns over what she described as the forcible taking of the body of Daljit Singh, a marginal farmer from Bhamme Kalan village in Mansa district who, she told the Speaker, died following drug consumption. The allegations are hers and have not been adjudicated.

In her notice, she also called for a report to be summoned from the Punjab government on the entire issue, along with all records in the case — the relevant FIR, the inquest and post-mortem records — and the whereabouts of Daljit's father Jarnail Singh, who she said was taken into custody by the Mansa police.

Badal told the Speaker she had submitted a recording of her exchange with SSP Chaudhary on October 29, which she said showed dereliction of duty and an effort to deny her a chance to ascertain the facts. She alleged the officer interrupted her repeatedly, twice characterised her account as a “wrong narrative”, called her “misguided” and her concerns “undue”.

According to her letter, the SSP's stated position in that exchange was that the police had taken over the body to “maintain law and order”, that the body was lying at AIIMS Bathinda, that the family should collect it themselves and that the police had “no role” in that process. She alleged he denied knowledge of photographic evidence showing Jarnail Singh being taken away by police and advised that a missing person report be filed. No fresh public response from the Mansa police to Saturday's privilege notice had been reported at the time of publishing.

Badal alleged that instead of acting against drug suppliers, a murder case was registered in the death, and that when the bereaved family sought to take Daljit's body to the protest site in Mansa where the family of slain anti-drug activist Parvinder Singh Jhota is holding a dharna, the police used force and took the body, and that Jarnail Singh was also taken away by uniformed personnel. The Daljit Singh case has already drawn protests in Mansa and a notice from the National Human Rights Commission in recent days. What happens next rests with the Speaker's decision on her notice.