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Journalism of Courage
If you go by the Ludhiana Police records, Kartar Singh, a close relative of B I S Chahal, media adviser to former Chief Minister Amarinder Singh, died nearly 13 years ago. However, it is another matter that the police arrested him in an alleged case of landgrabbing along with Chahal last month.
A few days ago, 75-year-old Kartar, whose granddaughter is married to Chahal’s son, was granted bail and the police seemed ignorant of the fact that its own officer had submitted a report declaring him dead in 1994. The matter was reported to the Punjab and Haryana High Court, which directed the SSP, Ludhiana, to institute an inquiry.
The directions were issued on a petition filed by Devinder Singh, a resident of Nandpur village, who was allegedly framed by Kartar. Devinder further alleged that in 1993, Kartar fabricated papers to get a freedom fighter’s pension even though he had nothing to do with the movement. When the fraud came to light, Kartar stopped withdrawing the pension and later got himself declared dead on the basis of a statement recorded by his son on September 11, 1994.
