Train accident: Sidhu's wife records statement before probe official

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Punjab cabinet minister Navjot Singh Sidhu's wife, who was the chief guest at the Dussehra function near Joda Phatak here when a train mowed down 59 people last month, gave her statement on Friday before the probe official.

On October 31, the inquiry commission had asked the Sidhu couple to appear before it to record their statement.

Jalandhar divisional commissioner B Purushartha, who is conducting the magisterial inquiry into the October 19 Amritsar train tragedy, recorded the statement of Navjot Kaur Sidhu.

However, Navjot Singh Sidhu failed to turn up before the commission but he sent his view point in the written form in a sealed envelope through his wife to the probe official.

Fifty-nine people were killed and 57 injured after a crowd of Dussehra revellers that had spilled onto railway tracks while watching burning of Ravana effigy was run over by a train here.

So far the commission has recorded the statements of more than fifty one victims, including their family members.

When Navjot Kaur was asked about the absence of her husband, she said that he could not come up due to various political engagements.

"At the time of accident he was not in the city but was in Bengaluru," Kaur told reporters.

After the train incident, Opposition had trained guns at Navjot Kaur claiming she ran away from the spot, a charge vehemently denied by the former legislator.

Navjot Kaur refused to answer further questions raised by the reporters to her and preferred to leave the venue.