Court acquits Dal Khalsa activists for raising Khalistan slogans

Monday, October, 22 2012 - 16:57 AMRITSAR: The local court of Chief Judicial Magistrate Ranjeet Kaur today dropped proceedings and charges against 21 leaders and activists of Dal Khalsa who were booked in June 2005 for raising slogans in favour of 'Khalistan' on the eve of anniversary of Operation Bluestar. An FIR was registered on June 8, 2005 at police station civil lines Amritsar against Kanwar Pal Singh and 20 others for giving provocative speeches and inciting people. The main allegations against the petitioners were that on the eve of the anniversary of Operation Bluestar, which took place on June 5, 1984, they were taking out a procession in which certain slogans and speeches were made to incite people to form Khalistan. All were booked under sections 124-A (sedition), 153-A, 153-B (imputations, assertions prejudicial to national-integration), 188 of the IPC. All the accused including Dal Khalsa's president H S Dhami, spokesperson Kanwar Pal Singh appeared before the trial court of CJM today. Advocate VP S Bhatia appeared as a counsel for the accused. Last week, Punjab and Haryana high court quashed the sedition charges against all. In the light of that order, the court of CJM today dropped the charges/proceedings in the said case. In February 2010, all the 21 persons named in the FIR had moved the high court, seeking quashing of the case registered against them. Their main plea was that the allegations made in the FIR are factually incorrect as the petitioners never raised such slogans and produced a recording of TV channel of the procession showing that no such slogans were raised. Among those against whom charges have been quashed are: H. S. Dhami, Satnam Singh Paonta Sahib, Kanwarpal Singh, Sarabjit Singh Ghuman, Balraj Singh, Kuldeep Singh, Arpal Singh, Baldev Singh, Gurdeep Singh, Giani Amrik Singh, Sukhdev Singh, Sarwan Singh and Avtar Singh.