LONDON: Michael Polak, the barrister for the family of Avtar Singh Khanda, a Khalistani activist who died from blood cancer in Birmingham City Hospital, has written to UK home secretary James Cleverly requesting that a different police force be directed to investigate Khanda’s death.
Khanda died aged 35 on June 15 at Birmingham City Hospital from terminal blood cancer. He is said to have groomed Waris Punjab De chief Amritpal Singh; Khanda’s father, Kulwant Singh Khukhrana, a Khalistan Liberation Force leader, was killed by Indian security forces in 1991.
Some British Sikhs are convinced Khanda was poisoned.
“Our request, addressed to the home secretary, is made on the basis that West Midlands Police (WMP) did not carry out an investigation after first stating they had, and we think this is a reasonable request given all the circumstances of this case,” Polak said, alluding to the foiled assassination attempt of Gurpatwant Singh Pannun in the US and the murder of Hardeep Singh Nijjar (designated by India as a terrorist) in Canada.
“The home secretary has the power to do this. Khanda’s family and the community can no longer have faith in WMP who are now under special measures for their failure to investigate crimes under their jurisdiction. WMP told the family and the coroner that they had carried out a full investigation, but they did not speak to his friends or visit his workplace or visit his residence. This means they have not carried out an investigation. What have they done?”
The letter has been copied to security minister Tom Tugendhat and policing minister Chris Philp. Polak has set a deadline of December 29 for a response.
Polak earlier made a request to the chief coroner for an inquest to be opened into Khanda’s death after the local coroner refused to. The chief coroner replied saying he did not have the power to do this. Polak approached the local coroner again. “She wrote back saying she still thinks it does not meet the threshold of suspicious or unnatural death,” he said.
A West Midlands police spokesman told TOI: “West Midlands Police is satisfied that there are no suspicious circumstances.”
Khanda died aged 35 on June 15 at Birmingham City Hospital from terminal blood cancer. He is said to have groomed Waris Punjab De chief Amritpal Singh; Khanda’s father, Kulwant Singh Khukhrana, a Khalistan Liberation Force leader, was killed by Indian security forces in 1991.
Some British Sikhs are convinced Khanda was poisoned.
“Our request, addressed to the home secretary, is made on the basis that West Midlands Police (WMP) did not carry out an investigation after first stating they had, and we think this is a reasonable request given all the circumstances of this case,” Polak said, alluding to the foiled assassination attempt of Gurpatwant Singh Pannun in the US and the murder of Hardeep Singh Nijjar (designated by India as a terrorist) in Canada.
“The home secretary has the power to do this. Khanda’s family and the community can no longer have faith in WMP who are now under special measures for their failure to investigate crimes under their jurisdiction. WMP told the family and the coroner that they had carried out a full investigation, but they did not speak to his friends or visit his workplace or visit his residence. This means they have not carried out an investigation. What have they done?”
The letter has been copied to security minister Tom Tugendhat and policing minister Chris Philp. Polak has set a deadline of December 29 for a response.
Polak earlier made a request to the chief coroner for an inquest to be opened into Khanda’s death after the local coroner refused to. The chief coroner replied saying he did not have the power to do this. Polak approached the local coroner again. “She wrote back saying she still thinks it does not meet the threshold of suspicious or unnatural death,” he said.
A West Midlands police spokesman told TOI: “West Midlands Police is satisfied that there are no suspicious circumstances.”