‘Police used expired tear gas shells to control mob

CHANDIGARH: The lax attitude of the UT police regarding dealing with rallies and demonstrations has been exposed once again as sources in the force said that expiration dates of many tear gas shells that were used to control the Haryana Janhit Congress protest on Friday, had passed.

Some non-expired shells also did not work as police tried to stop HJC workers from approaching Haryana assembly. Sources said that UT cops had taken the defective shells from Punjab police personnel present there, even when they had enough of their own.

‘Ideally, these should have been checked properly before taking on the mob. But it wasn’t done,’ a cop, who was on rally duty at the time of the incident, told TOI.

A senior official of UT police revealed, ‘We had sufficient number of shells with us. But we mostly used those brought by Punjab police. In the past, we had depended on our own supply.’

Ashwani Kumar, DSP (police lines) said, ‘I am not aware about tear gas shells being taken from Punjab cops.’

That is not the only issue which has arisen from cops’ action against the demonstrators. Their handling of the rally was also unsatisfactory in other ways. Cops were seen vandalizing parked vehicles along the rally ground and also used force against non-violent protesters.

Inquiry Ordered UT IG P K Srivastava ordered a detailed inquiry into all aspects of the rally which led

to a bloody clash between protesters and police force. Sources in the police said that inquiry officer SP (operation) R S Ghuman had asked for a record of the entire incident.