Kin of Bhagat Singh to Sue UK Govt
Published: 14th May 2014 07:59 AM | Last Updated: 14th May 2014 07:59 AM | A+A A-
The kin of legendary freedom fighter, Shaheed Bhagat Singh are planning to sue the UK government over alleged miscarriage of justice, which led to him being put to death for the killing of then Assistant Superintendent of Police John Saunders.
Subsequently it emerged that Singh was not even arraigned in the case. It was following this that the descendants of the revolutionary decided to sue the UK government.
Nearly a century ago, Singh, Sukhdev and Rajguru were awarded the capital punishment by the British rulers for allegedly killing Saunders. Singh’s Toronto-based sister Parkash Kaur,98, and his niece Surjit Kaur, who lives in Ambalajatta village in Punjab’s Hoshiarpur district said,” After consulting the legal experts we will file a criminal case for killing my uncle and also sue the UK government. The family have also discussed the issue in detail. The fact that he was not named in the case came as a rude shock to us.”
Similarly, Hoshiarpur-based Bhupinder Kaur, who is also a niece of the late revolutionary said, “The whole matter needs to be investigated by an independent agency and so the President should set up an agency, which will also include representatives from Pakistan and Bangladesh, for investigating the matter.
After getting legal counsel, the Singh clan are planning to go to Pakistan where they will discuss the matter with the Bhagat Singh Memorial Foundation(BSMF). Besides, they would consult legal experts there to make sure that Singh had been wrongly proceeded against.
Lawyer Imtiaz Rashid Qureshi, who heads BSMF, has been putting pressure on the judiciary to reopen the case pertaining to the murder of Saunders in 1928, saying that Singh might be innocent.
The Pakistan police had provided the lawyer with a copy of the FIR registered against the trio on December 17, 1928 for Saunders’ murder in Lahore.