GUJJAR ROW: Court asks IGP to conduct inquiry against Lal Singh
STATE TIMES NEWS
JAMMU : Judicial Magistrate Ist Class, City Judge Jammu, M.S Manhas on Wednesday issued directions to Inspector General Police (IGP) Jammu to conduct inquiry into allegations leveled by Gujjars against Forest Minister Lal Singh for using threatening and abusive language and submit a detailed report to the Court within a month.
According to the case, 12 persons belonging to Gujjar Community and one from Sharma community after exhausting the police channels up to the level of SSP Jammu to register an FIR against the Minister for Forest and Ecology, filed a complaint in the Court of JMIC City Judge Jammu for issuing directions to the SHO Gandhi Nagar under Section 156 (3) Cr PC for registering the FIR.
The applicants complained that they in the shape of a deputation went to the residence of Choudhary Lal Singh on 18th May, 2016 for redressal of their grievances. After hearing their grievances, the minister asked the names of all those present in the deputation and after knowing that they belonged to Gujjar community, he used un-parliamentary language saying, “You Gujjars, have you forgotten the massacre of 1947”, they said.
After this episode, the applicants went to SHO Gandhi Nagar on 20th May, 2016 with a written complaint to register an FIR against the minister. Since the FIR was not registered for five days, the applicants went to SSP Jammu on 25th May, 2016 but nothing was done. On the other hand the applicants were continuously receiving threats from the accused to withdraw the complaint, they said.
After listening to the counsel of applicants, the JMIC City Judge sent the complaint to IGP Jammu to conduct the inquiry in terms of Section 202 Cr PC. He further directed that IGP should conduct the inquiry himself and submit the detailed report within a period of one month. The next date of hearing has been fixed as 30th June, 2016.
Advocate Vijay Parihar filed the petition on behalf of petitioners Mumtaz Ahmed, Nazam Malik, Ghulam Hayder, Yousaf Ali, Hayder Ali, Mushtaq Ahmed, Rashpal Sharma, Ghulam Ali, Ali Hussain, Basher Ahmed, Gulzar Ahmed, Abdul Gani and Mohd Hussain.