Mohali police files status report in 23-yr-old sedition case against Jagtar Hawara

The police told the court that they have been gathering more evidence against Kulbir Kaur Dhami and will soon file a supplementary challan in the case. The court has fixed November 22 as the next date for hearing the case.

Mohali Police on Thursday filed the status report in a 23-year-old sedition case against Jagtar Singh Hawara, who has been convicted for the assassination of former Punjab Chief Minister Beant Singh. The status report also mentioned the name of a woman suspect.

The police told the court that they have been gathering more evidence against Kulbir Kaur Dhami and will soon file a supplementary challan in the case. The court has fixed November 22 as the next date for hearing the case.

In the status report filed on September 21, in the court of Civil Judge Mukesh Kumar Singla, the police had stated that Jagtar Singh Hawara was lodged at Burail Jail. It had further said that he could not be taken out of the jail as per the provisions of the Section 268 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC). The status report read that as Hawara could not be brought out of the jail, the challan could not be submitted.

However, Hawara’s counsel Jaspal Singh Manjhpur claimed that he is lodged at Tihar Jail. “Hawara is lodged at Tihar Jail while the status report submitted by the police state that he is in Burail Jail.” The counsel told The Indian Express that 23 years have passed but the police’s status report indicate that they want to further delay the proceedings in the case.

Hawara’s production warrants were first issued on April 4, 1999, for April 28 of the same year by the court of Judicial Magistrate First Class (JMIC) Mandeep Singh Dhillon in Kharar, however, after that the the district police neither brought Hawara on production warrants nor arrested him in the case.

Hawara, along with six other people, was booked under sections 124-A (sedition), 153-A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion), 225 (Resistance or obstruction to lawful apprehension of another person) and 511(Punishment for attempting to commit offenses punishable with imprisonment for life or other imprisonments) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) in FIR number 31 registered on June 13, 1998, at the Sohana Police Station.

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