Dalit's family ends protest after Pb govt offers `20 lakh, govt job

Chandigarh: The family of a Dalit man, who was forced to drink urine and died after being mercilessly thrashed, ended its protest on Monday after the Punjab government offered Rs 20 lakh compensation, a government job to his wife and free education to his three children.

The state government also announced a probe into the case by an additional director general of police rank officer, besides ensuring filling of challan against the four accused in court within seven days, an official spokesperson said in a release here.

The ADGP has also been mandated to probe lapses by officers, if any, to fix accountability. All efforts would be made to ensure stringent punishment for the culprits within three months, the spokesperson said.

Director General of Police Dinkar Gupta deputed Additional Director General of Police Gurpreet Deo to undertake the inquiry and submit a list of recommendations to prevent unfortunate delays in the future in filing the case.

The DGP said the inquiry officer's responsibility should also be fixed to initiate disciplinary proceedings against the erring officers.

Sandeep Sandhu, the political secretary to Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh, said a compensation of Rs 20 lakh, including Rs 8.25 lakh under the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, will be given to the next of kin of the 37-year-old man who was killed earlier this month.

He said out of Rs 20 lakh, Rs six lakh would be given on the day when the post-mortem of the body would be conducted and remaining sum during the 'bhog' (post death ritual) ceremony of the victim.

As per a written agreement between the victim's family and the state government, the wife of Jagmel Singh, Manjit Kaur, would be given a group-D job near her residence, giving relaxation in the prescribed educational qualification.

The government would bear the entire expenditure for the 'bhog' of the deceased. It would also provide free education to Jagmel Singh's children up to graduation level, said Sandhu. His children are currently studying in in class nine, class six and one.

Sandhu said that the government would pay an additional Rs 1.25 lakh for the repair of their house and also give free ration to the family for six months.

The agreement was reached after the representatives of the state government including three ministers -- Tript Rajinder Singh Bajwa, Charanjit Singh Channi and Vijay Inder Singla -- met Sandeep Sandhu, the political secretary to the Punjab chief minister. The meeting lasted for two hours.

Earlier, the family of Jagmel Singh had refused both -- to take his body and allow postmortem -- till their demand of Rs 50 lakh compensation and a government job for his wife were met.

Along with members of several Dalit organisations, they were protesting at the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER) campus, where Jagmel Singh's body was lying in the mortuary.