A special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court on Wednesday convicted a former Punjab police officer of kidnapping two people three decades ago in the state’s Tarn Taran. The CBI court will pronounce the quantum of punishment on December 23.
Former station house officer (SHO) Surinderpal Singh was booked by a court headed by Special CBI Judge Manjot Kaur under Sections 342 (wrongful obstruction), 364 (kidnapping), 365 (who abducts or abducts any person). was found guilty. and wrongful imprisonment) and 120-B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). Another accused in the case, Assistant Sub-Inspector (ASI) Avtar Singh, died during the trial.
On October 31, 1992, Sukhdev Singh, a resident of Bhakna, and his 80-year-old father-in-law, Sulkhan Singh, were arrested by a police team led by ASI Avtar Singh of Sarhali Police Station, Tarn Taran. After informing the family that Surinderpal Singh had called for questioning, the police arrested them from Sukhdev’s house in Ghanupur Kale area of Amritsar. They were kept illegally in the Sarhali police station for three days, but their families and members of the teachers’ union visited them and provided food, clothes, etc., but their whereabouts have not been revealed since then.
At that time, Sukhdev was working as a lecturer and vice-principal in the Government Senior Secondary School at Lopoke, Amritsar. Sulkhan Singh was a freedom fighter and one of the close associates of Baba Sohan Singh Bhakna in the freedom movement who remained in jail with him.
Sukhdev’s wife, Sukhwant Kaur, complained to the authorities that they were involved in criminal cases, but to no avail. Former MLAs Satpal Dang and Vimala Dang also wrote several letters to the then Chief Minister of Punjab Beant Singh in response to which he said that they are not in police custody. But in 2003, some police officers approached Sukhwant Kaur, took her signature on a blank paper and after a few days they gave Sukhdev Singh’s death certificate stating that he died on July 8, 1993.
The family was informed that Sukhdev Singh had died during the torture and his body was thrown into the Harike Canal along with Sulkhan Singh.
Sukhwant Kaur filed a case in the Punjab and Haryana High Court for the abduction, illegal detention and subsequent disappearance of her husband and father.
In another case in November 1995, the Supreme Court directed the CBI to investigate cases of mass cremation of dead bodies by the Punjab police after the case was exposed by human rights activist Jaswant Singh Khalra. During its initial investigation, the CBI also recorded Sukhwant’s statement on November 20, 1996, and based on his statement on March 6, 1997, the agency registered a case under IPC Section 364/34 against Avtar Singh and Surinderpal Singh.
In 2000, the CBI filed a closure report which was rejected by the CBI court in Patiala in 2002 and also ordered further investigation. In 2009, the CBI filed a chargesheet against Surinderpal and Avtar Singh in the case and in 2016, a CBI court in Patiala framed charges under IPC Sections 120-B, 342,364, and 365 IPC. However, Avtar Singh died during this period.
During the hearing of the case, 14 prosecution witnesses and 9 defense witnesses recorded their statements in the CBI court in Mohali. Surinderpal was earlier convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment in the Jaswant Singh Khalra murder case. He was found guilty and sentenced to 10 years in prison in another case in which four members of the same family were abducted and disappeared from Jeobala village in Tarn Taran.
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