2015 police firing incidents: Give 7-day notice to Umranangal before arrest: HC

The Punjab and Haryana high court on Thursday granted a blanket bail to suspended inspector general of police (IGP) Parmraj Singh Umranangal, asking Punjab Police to give him seven-day advance notice before initiating any action in criminal cases registered against him in the 2015 police firing incidents on anti-sacrilege protesters.

This order doesn’t apply to the Kotkpura firing incident case for which he has been arrested on February 18 by the special investigation team (SIT) from the Punjab Police headquarters in Chandigarh.

Umranangal had approached the high court submitting he feared arrest upon bail in other cases. Disposing of the petition, the high court bench of justice Ramendra Jain asked Punjab Police to give him a 7-days prior notice in case he is required for interrogation in other cases.

The suspended IG’s counsel, APS Deol, told court that the petitioner is being used as a stooge by the Congress government to gain political mileage by showing his arrest.

Deol said he was neither indicted by the justice Ranjit Singh Commission (retd) set up to probe the 2015 Kotkapura and Behbal Kalan firing cases and sacrilege incidents nor he was present at the time of firing on the protesters.

When he remained in the police remand, no incriminating material was collected by the SIT against Umranangal to show his involvement in ordering firing at Kotakpura or Behbal Kalan, said deol, adding that other accused had already got bail from the high court.

First Published: Mar 07, 2019 22:12 IST