Four days after 60 people standing on the tracks near a railway crossing in Amritsar were mowed down by a train, a Gurugram-based lawyer on Monday moved the Punjab and Haryana High Court seeking a CBI probe.
In his petition expected to be placed on Tuesday before the Bench headed by Chief Justice Krishna Murari, petitioner Dinesh Kumar Dakoria has sought directions to the State of Punjab and other respondents to set up a special investigation team.
Directions have also been sought for monitoring the probe by the High Court, besides directions for setting up a commission under retired/sitting “judges” for assessment and estimation of personal losses for granting adequate compensation.
The petitioner has also sought issuance of guidelines for defining the duties and responsibilities of the “elected members in respect of their respective constituencies and the people thereof”. He said the “elected members” disowned their responsibility, leaving the common man in the lurch.
The petitioner has made former Amritsar-East MLA Navjot Kaur a respondent. She was chief guest at the Dussehra festivity near the accident site, which falls in the constituency now represented by her husband.
The petitioner, through counsel Shashak Deo Sudh, claimed that the state police should have registered an FIR against all those “responsible” for organising such an “irresponsible event” adjacent to Joda Phatak.
The petitioner claimed that it was unfortunate that nobody was taking responsibility for the incident. Even the railways clearly stated that they were not responsible for the incident and would not compensate the families of the victims.
Rather, the Railways refused to order an inquiry into the incident, saying the tragedy was the result of trespassing and not a railway accident.
The petitioner said the politicians, too, were escaping the responsibility. He said a fair probe was not possible as it was being conducted by the state police.
