Gurdeep Singh Mann

Tribune News Service

Virk Kalan (Bathinda), Dec 10

Head Constable Malkit Singh was mercilessly beaten up and “paraded naked” late last evening, by the sons of Virk Kalan sarpanch (who is aligned with the SAD). Thereafter, he was forced to lick boots, claimed local residents.

An eyewitness said two policemen, who were on duty a day before the inauguration of the Bathinda airport, had parked their car on the narrow Virk Kalan-Kotbhai road. As a tractor-trailer passed by, it brushed against the parked vehicle, causing scratches.

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Four persons, including the sarpanch’s two sons, alighted from the tractor-trailer and confronted the policemen. An argument ensued and the four took out sticks. Terrified, one of the cops fled. But the assailants nabbed Head Constable Malkit Singh. Beaten up mercilessly, his uniform torn, he was made to sit naked on a cot and driven around the village.

“One of the sarpanch’s sons then asked him to lick his boot,” another eyewitness, who did not wish to be named, said. It did not end there. The policeman was dragged inside a house. “By that time, a police team arrived there, forced open the door of the house and rescued the Head Constable, who was admitted to the Bathinda Civil Hospital with multiple fractures and injuries on his chest, arms, thighs, shoulders and the abdomen.

“I can’t exactly recall what they did to me, but it was much more than humiliation,” said a shattered Malkit Singh.

Swapan Sharma, Senior Superintendent of Police, said the key accused, Lakhwinder Lakha, one of the sons of the village sarpanch, and his family members had absconded.

Lakha, he said, booked in murder, attempt to murder, abduction and assault cases, was arrested two months ago (September 23) for threatening a doctor for submitting a medico-legal report, confirming injuries to an assault victim.” He denied the head constable was paraded naked or was coerced into licking Lakha’s boot.

“The head constable’s shirt was torn as the accused persons were drunk,” the Senior Superintendent of Police maintained.