Jaswinder Kaur, Col Bath’s wife, had met Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on March 31, where she expressed dissatisfaction with the delay. “The CM assured us of a CBI probe, but no action was taken,” she said.Initially, she had expressed satisfaction with the assurance, but later realised that it was a false promise. The family had earlier met Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh in Delhi and Punjab Governor Gulab Chand Kataria.The Punjab Police SIT, which was led by ADGP A.S. Rai, had recorded the statements of the accused officers yesterday. However, with the court’s decision, the SIT has now become defunct.The Punjab Police had registered an FIR only on March 22, eight days after the incident, following repeated appeals from the officer’s family.The incident took place on the intervening night of March 13 and 14 when Col Bath and his son, Angad Singh, were having dinner at a dhaba near Rajindra Hospital. Col Bath alleged that a group of men aggressively approached them, demanding they move their car.”One of them threatened to break our legs and then punched me. I lost consciousness. Then they assaulted my son,” he said. When Col Bath identified himself as an Army officer, the attackers allegedly snatched his ID card and mobile phone.The petitioner alleged that the Patiala Police failed to act despite the severity of the incident. He claimed that distress calls to senior officials were ignored.Instead of registering an FIR on his complaint, the police initially lodged a case of ‘affray’ against unknown persons based on a third-party complaint. The officer’s family had to approach senior police officials and even the Punjab Governor before an FIR was finally registered eight days later.
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