JAMMU: Next week, next of kin of Chamel Singh, an Indian farmer, who was brutally murdered inside Kot Lakhpat Central Jail in Pakistan in January 2013, would be organising fourth death anniversary of their sole bread earner to pay their solemn tributes.
In the past four years the family members including wife of Chamel Singh made several passionate appeals before the successive State and central governments and senior party functionaries of different political parties but none came forward to extend helping hand to the distraught family, living life full of miseries in their non-descript village in Pargwal area of Akhnoor.
On Monday when Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti announced an ex-gratia relief of Rs 5 lakh to the next of kin of those killed during Kashmir unrest, hopes of Chamel Singh kin were raised too.
They claimed if the State Government can compensate those stone pelters against whom the police had lodged FIRs for looting weapons and destroying government buildings why it is ignoring the plight of a farmer who was languishing in Pak jail while he was brutally murdered four years ago.
Chamel Singh was serving a five-year jail term after charges of espionage were framed against him.
In the last four years, the wife of Chamel Singh, Kamlesh Devi along with her sons has not left any stone unturned to move the wheels of justice but all their efforts have failed to yield fruitful results till date.
In his last communication to his family, Chamel Singh had shared details of his release at the end of five-year jail term. But before walking free he was lynched inside the jail by the jail authorities over a petty issue.
The case of compensation for kin of Chamel Singh assumes added significance at a time when the BJP-PDP alliance government had cleared the case of compensation of stone pelters. At the same time, State BJP Chief and MLA Jammu West Assembly Constituency Satpaul Sharma and Speaker Kavinder Gupta both demanded similar compensation package for Amarnath land row victims of 2008. First, Satpaul Sharma raised the demand before the Chief Minister while participating in the discussion on the Motion of Thanks and later Kavinder Gupta issued a statement raising the same issue and urging the government to consider the demand of paying compensation to the victims of Amarnath land row. It remains to be seen whether Finance Minister Dr Haseeb Drabu would be able to save enough money to allow the Chief Minister and Deputy Chief Minister to make liberal announcement of compensation for the kin of Chamel Singh.