CBI files chargesheet against 4 Punjab Police officers in colonel assault case

Chandigarh, Dec 25 (PTI) The Central Bureau of Investigation has filed a chargesheet in a Mohali court against four Punjab Police officers in connection with the alleged assault on Colonel Pushpinder Singh Bath in March.

The chargesheet has been filed against four police officers including Inspector Ronnie Singh, said sources.

The development came nearly five months after the Punjab and Haryana High Court in July transferred the probe into the case to the CBI.

The alleged incident took place on the intervening night of March 13 and 14 when Colonel Bath and his son were having food at a roadside dhaba (eatery) in Patiala.

Colonel Bath has accused some Punjab Police personnel of assaulting him and his son over a parking dispute.

In his complaint, he alleged that the assailants -- four inspector-rank officers of the Punjab Police and their armed subordinates -- attacked him and his son without provocation, snatched his ID card and mobile phone, and threatened him with a "fake encounter", all in public view and under CCTV camera coverage.

The colonel suffered a broken arm, while his son had a cut on his head in the incident.

Bath had alleged that a fair investigation was impossible under the Punjab Police.

In April, the high court transferred the probe into the assault case to the Chandigarh Police and directed it to complete the investigation within four months.

But Bath in its fresh plea before the high court sought an independent probe preferably by the CBI into the matter.

The high court in July transferred the investigation to the CBI and also pulled up the Chandigarh Police for trying to create "loopholes" and "craters" in the probe, asserting no prospects of free and fair investigation by it.

On July 25, the CBI re-registered two FIRs filed by the Civil Lines police station Patiala, as its own separate cases, with one from Colonel Bath side and the other from the dhaba owner in Patiala.

The FIRs were filed under various provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita. PTI CHS VSD KVK KVK