Cop assaulted in Batala, fourth incident in recent past

Gurdaspur : Around a dozen persons attacked a Batala police head constable and his companion by iron rods on the outskirts of his village—Nathwal— in Gurdaspur district on Monday morning.Harpal Singh, who works in the counter-intelligence wing, broke both legs and sustained serious head injuries. Kuldeep Singh who was accompanying him also suffered grievous injuries.Eyewitnesses said the head constable was wearing his uniform when the incident took place. “12 persons got down from 4 vehicles and asked Harpal to stop his motorcycle. When he refused to do so, two of the accused stood in front of his bike and challenged him to escape. The other ten then pounced on him and mercilessly started beating of them. This went on for nearly 10 minutes after which they left Harpal for dead and slipped away,” disclosed an eyewitness. They were taken to the Batala Civil Hospital. At the time of filing this report doctors were making preparations to shift them to Amritsar.
Doctors said that the right leg of Kuldeep had also been fractured.A case has been registered at the Rangar Nangal police station. SSP Daljinder Singh Dhillon ordered a manhunt to nab the accused following which the village was sealed.
The main accused has been identified as one Vikramjit Vicky, alias Sarpanch.Old enmity between Vicky and Harpal is reported to be the reason for today’s assault.The main job of officers working in the counter-intelligence is to provide tip-offs to their colleagues. A few weeks ago the police, acting on feedback given by Harpal, had conducted a raid on Vicky’s residence in the village following which a huge cache of arms and ammunition was recovered.Ever since then Vicky had been telling villagers that one day he will take revenge.This is the fourth such incident in Batala in which policemen have come under attack.The most pronounced was the Gokhuwal village assault on May 15 in which ASI Nirjit Singh was tied to a pole with a rope and thrashed by a group of villagers.