When Kripal Singh (Chandrachur Singh) sees Inspector Vora (Kanwaljit Singh) at a Sikh shrine in Himachal Pradesh he is determined to kill the police officer. Kripal is a Khalistani militant and the protagonist of Gulzar-directed Maachis (1996). Earlier in the film, Vora had been a part of a police team that turned up in Kripal’s village searching for militants and had picked up his friend Jaswant Singh Randhawa (Raj Zutshi). Jaswant Jassi, as Kripal calls him is tortured in custody even though the police are aware he is innocent. Unable to get justice through legal means, Kripal turns to the militants.
More than 75 blankets were distributed in an Uttar Pradesh jail on Tuesday along with pictures of Asaram, a jailed “holy man” serving a life sentence for rape who was once close to Narendra Modi and the BJP.
The incident happened in Shahjahanpur, home district of the raped girl and a witness in the case, Kripal Singh, who was murdered. The two alleged blanket donors had earlier been lodged in the same jail, accused of conspiring to kill Kripal, before obtaining bail.
District magistrate Indra Vikram Singh has serve a notice on jail superintendent Rakesh Kumar seeking an explanation.
Asaram, a self-styled “godman”, had since 2008 got embroiled in controversy over the disappearance and alleged murder of young boys from many of his dozens of ashrams across northern and western India, prompting Modi to distance himself from him.