Sidhu, wife summoned by commission probing Amritsar train tragedy

Chandigarh, Oct 31 (IANS) Punjab Cabinet Minister Navjot Singh Sidhu and his wife Navjot Kaur have been summoned by a one-man commission conducting an inquiry into the Amritsar train tragedy in which 60 people were killed on October 19.

Senior IAS officer B. Purushartha, who is conducting the inquiry in Amritsar, has asked the Sidhu couple to appear before the commission on November 2 (Friday).

Navjot Kaur, a former legislator and ex chief parliamentary secretary, was the chief guest at the Dussehra festival near Joda Phatak when the DMU (diesel multiple unit) train crushed those standing on the railway tracks.

Sixty people lost their lives and an equal number were injured in the train tragedy.

Opposition leaders and locals alleged that Navjot Kaur fled the scene after the train mowed down the people.

There are allegations that the event was organised without mandatory permissions, which had to be given by the municipal corporation which falls under the local government department headed by Sidhu.

The main organizer of the event, Saurabh Madan Mithoo, is a close political aide of the Sidhu couple.

Mithoo, his family members and other organizers were questioned by the inquiry commission in Amritsar, over 250 km from here, on Tuesday for over four hours.

The commission has been asked to submit its report within four weeks.