HR manager attack case: Acquitted man’s family gathered CCTV footage to help free him

Two days after Joginder Singh (23) was arrested by police in connection with an attack on an HR manager with a Japanese company on Tauru road, his family wasn’t allowed to even meet him in the prison. That’s when they took a collective decision—to prove Singh’s innocence by hunting for CCTV footage of the crime.

Joginder Singh’s father Kavar Singh said that once they had collected the footage, they met the deputy commissioner of police and showed it to him. “We collected CCTV footage from different areas and transferred it to a laptop. After the SIT was formed, we showed it to a DCP in the headquarters,” he said.

The 46-year-old said that after showing the footage, the DCP gave them a positive response and it gave them hope. “He (DCP) told us to give the police some time and that they will arrest the real culprit.”

On July 9, Joginder’s uncle Surender Singh (45), along with other family members, started looking for CCTV footage in the area where the crime happened. “We found CCTV footage near GITM College where the shooting happened, a toll booth close to the area, and also from where the meeting took place,” Surender Singh said.

The victim, Dinesh Sharma, had told the police that on June 6, he got a call from a resident of Rathiwas village to come to Bilaspur for an urgent meeting. “When he went there, he was confronted by 10 people, including Singh (Joginder). They threatened my brother of dire consequences if they did not reinstate Singh,” the victim’s brother had said earlier.

This was a major reason for the police arresting Joginder Singh and his uncle.

“The meeting’s CCTV footage showed that Joginder was not a part of the meeting,” Surender Singh said.

He said that they also found the two accused in one of the footage. “The one who was riding the motorcycle was wearing a helmet and the other one had a cloth covering his face,” he said.

“It took us around five to six days to collect the CCTV footage,” he added.

But Kavar Singh said that police should have collected the CCTV footage and investigated before arresting his son. “Without any investigation my son was arrested and sent to jail, what was done to us was wrong. But we thank the SIT for the clean chit.”