Bimla Devi vs State of Haryana

Ritu Bahri, J.—This petition under Articles 226/227 of the Constitution of India is for issuance of writ in the nature of mandamus directing the respondents to pay damages on account of death of Kuldeep Singh on 01.02.1998 in road blockade and traffic jam on G.T. Road Samalkha, on account of lathi charged by the police at the instance of the respondents.

Petitioner No. 1 is the widow of Kuldeep Singh whereas petitioner No. 2 is the major daughter, petitioner Nos. 3 and 4 are the minor daughters and petitioner No. 5 is the minor son of Kuldeep Singh.

Kuldeep Singh (since deceased) born on 24.05.1959, was a transporter and running his business at Ambala Cantt and residing with his family there. On 29.01.1998, Kuldeep Singh had gone to Bharatpur (Rajasthan) to attend the marriage of one of his relations and was coming back to Ambala by Bus No. C-3344-HR10-PA-0126 of Haryana Roadways. He had purchased tickets from the bus bearing Nos. EC518532, Q 807686, FI 568126, FI 568125, EG070010, B 273550 from Bus Conductor Hawa Singh on 01.02.1998. There was a traffic jam in connection of the brutal murder committed by the local police of young Canter-Driver Sat Pal, aged 33 years when he was taking his canter from local railway crossing, who has refused to give bribe to the police officials on 31.01.1998. This jam on 01.02.1998 was on account of the agitation by the public. The bus in which the deceased Kuldeep Singh was travelling reached near Samalkha on G.T. Road, it was held up in the jam. Kuldeep Singh proceeded to get another vehicle to reach Ambala. The police officials broke the glasses of the vehicles, threw stones on the public, brutally lathi charged and used tear gas shell. The public started running and the deceased Kuldeep Singh also started running picking up his attachi. At the instance of Smt. Jaiwanti Sheokant, D.C. Panipat, the police officials of P.S. Samalakha and respondent Nos. 2 and 3 lathi charged the public gathered on G.T. Road and also opened the tear gas shell. It created panic among the persons present there and also polluted the atmosphere on account of which Kuldeep Singh breathed his last at the spot i.e. on G.T. Road Samalakha in front of the office of BJP. The occurrence took place at 4 P.M. and the dead body of Kuldeep Singh remained lying at the place of occurrence for the last more then two hours. One Raghubir Singh who is employed at Ashok Dharam Kanta, G.T. Road Samalkha saw deceased Kuldeep Singh lying dead along with ralling reported the matter to the police (P-1). Thereafter, F.I.R. bearing N. 43 on 02.02.1998 was lodged by the police against the erring police officials u/s 302/34 IPC, who were responsible for the brutal murder of Canter Driver Sat pal. The two police official i.e. Jai Pal and Charan Singh were arrested lateron in that F.I.R. arising out of F.I.R. No. 43.

Chief Minister Haryana gave a sum of Rs. 1,10,000/- to the family of deceased Sat Pal. This all was published in Daily Punjab Kesari Ambala dated 02.02.1998 and Daily Rastriya Sahara New Delhi dated 02.02.1998 (P-2 and P-3) respectively.

No action was taken by the police with regard to the death of Kuldeep Singh and tried to hush up the matter to save the erring officials. Thereafter, petitioner No. 1 approached Jawan Bharat Sabha Samalkha for getting justice. The convener of the Sabha sent a request regarding the investigation of the death of Kuldeep Singh by C.B.I. to the President National Human Rights Commission, New Delhi (P-4), who forwarded the complaint for investigation to D.G.P., Haryana and the matter was investigated and admitted that a case F.I.R. No. 43 dated 02.02.1998 under Sections 302/34 IPC, P.S. GRP, Karnal has been registered and Constables Satpal and Charan Singh have been arrested who are in judicial custody. It was also admitted that there was a traffic jam on 01.02.1998 and the vehicles were stopped, their glass pens were broken and two government buses were put on fire by putting kerosene oil. There was a stone throwing and respondent Nos. 2 and 3 were also present at the spot.

On notice, a written statement dated 24.01.2001 has been filed on behalf of respondent Nos. 1, 3 and 4 wherein it was admitted that dead body of deceased Kuldeep Singh was found lying near Ashoka Dharam Kanta, G.T. Road Samalakha and other side from the place of occurrence i.e. where the tear gas/smoke candle were used by the police. This information was given by one Raghbir Sigh to ASI Rattan Singh at about 4.30 P.M. The dead body of Kuldeep Singh was examined by Dr. R.K. Tandon, Medical Officer, Panipat At the statement given by the brother of the deceased, the inquest report u/s 174 Cr.P.C. was also recorded which was duly signed by his brothers in which they had not disclosed that he went to Bharatpur in connection with marriage of his relatives.

It is admitted that as per orders of SDM, Panipat, tear gas shell were used to protect the public vehicles as well as Government property and to disperse the mob who jammed the national highway no. 1. It is denied that lathi charge was used by the police on the mob to disperse them. The opinion of the Dr. R.K. Tandon who conducted the PMR on the body of the deceased Kuldeep Singh (R-1/T) reads as under:-

The cause of death of Kuldeep Singh son of Arjun Singh vide P.M. No. RKT/2/98 dated 2.2.1998, being an old diabetic patient, could have been due to sudden cardiac arrest as a result of verticular tachycardia. This cannot be ruled out.

As per report given by D.G.P. Haryana to A.R. National Human Rights Commission, New Delhi, there was a jam on 01.02.1998 by some mischievous elements in anger on the National Highway on account of death of Satpal in train accident on 01.02.1998. D.C. Panipat Smt. Jaiwant Sheokant, Police Supdt O.P. Singh and other officials were present at the time of stone throwing. They were also injured. Seeing the tense situation, the police used tear gas sheel. Jam remained for petty long. In this jam, Kuldeep Singh who was old and sikh man of 70 years died on account of heart failure. His post mortem was conducted in G.H. Panipat. P.P. Kapur District Convener, Naujan Sabha Panipat was the main person for breaking the glass pain and putting the bus on fire. F.I.R. No. 47 dated 01.02.1998 u/s. 148/149/332/332/353/341/436/427 IPC has been registered. After arresting P.P. Kapur, he was sent to judicial lock up. There was no possible injury on the person of Kuldeep Singh and as per post mortem report, he died due to cardiac arrest. P.P. Kapur made a false complaint to save his misdeeds. Subsequently, the investigation was conducted on the complaint made by the petitioners and as per the statements made by brother of the deceased i.e. Pal Singh and Raj singh, the deceased was suffering from diabetes (sugar) and keeping in view the fact that he did not receive any injuries as per PMR. The statements of the shopkeepers have been recorded, whose shops are situated near the place of occurrence, who had stated that the deceased Kuldeep Singh had not died on account of Lathi charge by the police.

After going through the reply filed by the respondents, no ground is made out for directing the respondents to pay damages on account of death of Kuldeep Singh.

The writ petition is accordingly dismissed.