PATIALA -- Balwant Singh Rajoana, who is undergoing jail term in Central Jail Patiala for the assassination of former Punjab Chief Minister Beant Singh, allegedly thrashed senior journalist Kanwar Sandhu today during their meeting in the prison.
Former police officer Gurmeet Pinky was also present during the meeting, police said.
Sandhu had gone to the Patiala jail to interview Rajoana who turned angry over some issue and thrashed the journalist, police said.
DIG (Jails) Lakhminder Singh has confirmed the incident and said the meeting was inappropriate and Assistant Jail Superintendent Jagmel Singh who had arranged the meeting was suspended after the incident.
PTI was unable to reach Sandhu to get details of the incident.
Punjab Jail Minister Sohan Singh Thandal said an inquiry has been ordered into how the unauthorised entry and interview was managed.
"Once the report is submitted strict action against will be taken against the guilty jail officials," he said.
Meanwhile, Sandhu in a post on his Facebook page claimed that last week, after the videos, 'Confessions of a Punjab Police Cop', were uploaded on Youtube, he was approached by Rajoana's sister, Kamaldeep Kaur, who told him that he should have taken the convict's version of the issues.
"She said that I should meet Rajoana for the version and offered to arrange the meeting in jail. The meeting was fixed by her for today. She insisted that I ask Gurmeet Singh Pinky to come so that he could be face to face with Rajoana. I asked Pinky, if he could. He said, fine," the post said.
Sandhu said that Kaur told him that her husband would accompany him for the meeting.
"I was ushered into the jail and when I met Rajoana, her husband was also sitting there. Pinky was not with me. When I met Rajoana and the other gentleman, an argument ensued and when I noticed that Rajoana and the other person were getting violent, I tried to move away. The jail officials intervened and lest the situation gets out of hand, I moved out of the jail.
"Rajoana's sister has posted a comment on her facebook page. I posted my own comments there but these were removed.
In this post, she has accused me of yellow journalism at the behest of the government. I will not join issue with her as she claims to be an honourable person. I would only say that on my journalism, I would want my work to speak for itself," the post said.
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Former police officer Gurmeet Pinky was also present during the meeting, police said.
Sandhu had gone to the Patiala jail to interview Rajoana who turned angry over some issue and thrashed the journalist, police said.
DIG (Jails) Lakhminder Singh has confirmed the incident and said the meeting was inappropriate and Assistant Jail Superintendent Jagmel Singh who had arranged the meeting was suspended after the incident.
PTI was unable to reach Sandhu to get details of the incident.
Punjab Jail Minister Sohan Singh Thandal said an inquiry has been ordered into how the unauthorised entry and interview was managed.
"Once the report is submitted strict action against will be taken against the guilty jail officials," he said.
Meanwhile, Sandhu in a post on his Facebook page claimed that last week, after the videos, 'Confessions of a Punjab Police Cop', were uploaded on Youtube, he was approached by Rajoana's sister, Kamaldeep Kaur, who told him that he should have taken the convict's version of the issues.
"She said that I should meet Rajoana for the version and offered to arrange the meeting in jail. The meeting was fixed by her for today. She insisted that I ask Gurmeet Singh Pinky to come so that he could be face to face with Rajoana. I asked Pinky, if he could. He said, fine," the post said.
Sandhu said that Kaur told him that her husband would accompany him for the meeting.
"I was ushered into the jail and when I met Rajoana, her husband was also sitting there. Pinky was not with me. When I met Rajoana and the other gentleman, an argument ensued and when I noticed that Rajoana and the other person were getting violent, I tried to move away. The jail officials intervened and lest the situation gets out of hand, I moved out of the jail.
"Rajoana's sister has posted a comment on her facebook page. I posted my own comments there but these were removed.
In this post, she has accused me of yellow journalism at the behest of the government. I will not join issue with her as she claims to be an honourable person. I would only say that on my journalism, I would want my work to speak for itself," the post said.
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