A Special Investigation Team was formed to probe the incident and the chargesheet was filed after 20 months of tragic incident in the court of JMIC Harpreet Singh on July 5. Court has summoned the accused to be present on July 30. (Representational)
Mithu Madan, a local Congress party leader who is considered a close aide of former Punjab Cabinet minister Navjot Singh Sidhu has been named in Dussehra train tragedy chargesheet filed by the Government Railway Police (GRP).
Madan was president of Dussehra Committee which had organised the event in which 58 people had died after they were run over by a fast moving train while they had gathered to watch Ravana effigy burning on October 19, 2018.
Apart from Madan, general secretary of the Dussehra Committee Rahul Kalyan, cashier Deepak Kumar, secretaries Karan Bhandari and Kabal Singh, press secretary Deepak Gupta, and executive member Bhupinder Singh have been named in chargesheet of case booked under Sections 304 (A), 337 and 338 of the IPC by the GRP.
A Special Investigation Team was formed to probe the incident and the chargesheet was filed after 20 months of tragic incident in the court of JMIC Harpreet Singh on July 5. Court has summoned the accused to be present on July 30.
“All the accused are very influential in the public, and they possess political status. With the arrest of the accused, the disruption of law and order situation cannot be ruled out,” reads the chargesheet to suggest that accused may not be arrested in the case.
Advocate Sarabjit Singh Verka of the Punjab Human Rights Organisation (PHRO) said, “It is surprising that the SIT doesn’t seem interested in the accused. It is also saying accused are influential. Is it the real reason that SIT doesn’t want to arrest accused?”