Mar 28, 2025 06:09 PM IST
Amardeep Singh Rai replaces SPS Parmar, who was posted as Vigilance Bureau chief director on Thursday.
The Punjab government on Friday appointed additional director general of police (ADGP), traffic, Amardeep Singh Rai as the head of the special investigation team (SIT) probing the assault on Colonel Pushpinder Singh Bath and his son Angad in Patiala on March 13. Rai replaces SPS Parmar, who was posted as Vigilance Bureau chief director on Thursday.
Punjab Police had formed a three-member SIT on March 21, a week after the incident, with Hoshiarpur senior superintendent of police Sandeep Malik and Mohali rural superintendent of police Manpreet Singh as the two other members. The SIT was directed to conduct the investigation daily.
Colonel Bath, who has accused 12 Punjab Police personnel of assaulting him and his son over a parking dispute outside a dhaba in Patiala on the intervening night of March 13 and 14, had not appeared before the SIT on Tuesday, citing his plea in the Punjab and Haryana high court seeking the transfer of the case to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
The army officer, who is recuperating from an elbow fracture at his house in Patiala after he was discharged from Command Hospital, Chandimandir, had informed the SIT that a petition has already been instituted on his behalf under Section 528 of the Bharatiya Nagarika Suraksha Sanhita, 2023, before the high court, wherein he has requested that the probe be handed over to the CBI or another independent agency.
“Since the high court is seized of the matter pertaining to the instant FIR, it is requested that the proceedings be deferred until the outcome of the petition,” read the application submitted by Colonel Bath before the SIT.
SIT members said they would proceed further in accordance with the high court’s orders.
