Amritsar, August 12
Punjab Vidhan Sabha Speaker Kultar Singh Sandhwan security personnel on Thursday manhandled a truck driver after his cavalcade was not readily allowed to pass through by a truck on the Amritsar-Jalandhar GT road.
He was heading towards the holy city to attend the inauguration of the KYB Blood Bank at Joshan Multi-Specialty Hospital located on the Mehta Road.
It is learnt that as his car was passing through GT Road near bypass, a truck hit his vehicle from the side. Claiming it to be a negligence of the truck driver, the security personnel manhandled the driver.
ਅੰਮ੍ਰਿਤਸਰ ਸਾਹਿਬ ਜਾਂਦਿਆਂ ਜਿਸ ਕਾਰ ਵਿਚ ਮੈਂ ਸਵਾਰ ਸਾਂ, ਉਸਦੇ ਇਕ ਪਾਸੇ ਟਰੱਕ ਵਾਲੇ ਨੇ ਟੱਕਰ ਮਾਰ ਦਿੱਤੀ। ਪਰਮਾਤਮਾ ਦਾ ਲੱਖ ਲੱਖ ਸ਼ੁਕਰ ਹੈ ਕਿ ਬਚਾ ਹੋ ਗਿਆ,ਮੇਰੇ ਸੁਰੱਖਿਆ ਮੁਲਾਜ਼ਮਾਂ ਦਾ ਟਰੱਕ ਡਰਾਈਵਰ ਨਾਲ ਬੋਲ ਬੁਲਾਰਾ ਵੀ ਹੋਇਆ,ਮਾਫ਼ੀ ਚਾਹੁੰਦਾ ਹਾਂ। ਪਰ ਸੜਕ ਉੱਤੇ ਅਜਿਹੀ ਜਾਨਲੇਵਾ ਲਾਪ੍ਰਵਾਹੀ ਦੀ ਜਾਂਚ ਹੋਣੀ ਬਹੁਤ ਜ਼ਰੂਰੀ ਹੈ।
— Kultar Singh Sandhwan (@Sandhwan) August 11, 2022
The Speaker also posted about this unfortunate incident on his twitter handle. While advocating an inquiry into the mishap, he was also apologetic for his security squad’s behaviour. He said that it was the liability of every driver to observe the traffic rules, otherwise it could cost any innocent’s life.
Chattiwind SHO Mukhtiar Singh said though there were no injuries or any major damage to the vehicles, the investigation is on. “We have not yet registered any case but our team is verifying the facts before proceeding further,” he said.
Meanwhile, a video went viral on the social media, in which the security guards of Speaker were seen beating the truck driver.
Introducing himself as Gurnam Singh Johal, district president, Punjab Truck Ekta, a man in the video clip said the truck driver could not give safe passage to the Speaker’s cavalcade as the road was under repair and was already occupied with heavy traffic.
This infuriated the security personnel and they dragged the driver out of the vehicle and beat him. He was seen criticising the Bhagwant Mann-led AAP government for the incident alleging that the Aam Aadmi Party had committed before coming to power, that it would not propagate the gunman culture, which has proved to be farce.
He also gave a call to truck drivers that if anything of this sort happens again, they should all unite and make the government realise that the time has changed when such atrocities were the order of the day.