CHANDIGARH: A special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court sentenced five retired Punjab Police officials, including a former Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) and a Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) to life imprisonment in a 32-year-old fake encounter case.
Seven people, including four Special Police Officers (SPOs), were gunned down in the incident in 1993 in Rani Willa village in Tarn Taran district.
Those who have been sentenced to life imprisonment include former SSP Bhupinderjit Singh (61), former DSP Davinder Singh (58), former inspector Suba Singh (83), assistant sub-inspectors (ASIs) Gulabarg Singh (72) and Raghbir Singh (63).
Sarabjit Singh Verka, counsel for the victim's families, said, "Finally, justice has been delivered to the families of the victims after 32 years. They have been waiting for this day. The court pronounced the quantum of the sentence and life imprisonment to all five accused who were earlier convicted in the case and imposed a penalty of Rs 17.50 lakh. The compensation will be given to the families of the deceased. Further, the court has sent the case to the district legal service authority.’’
The family members of the victims were present in court during the pronouncement of the sentence and were visibly emotional. All of them were in tears, expressed relief and said that justice had finally been 'served'.
On August 1, the court found them guilty of criminal conspiracy, murder, destruction of evidence and forgery under various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
The CBI had registered the case in 1999 based on a statement by Narinder Kaur, wife of SPO Shinder Singh, whose body had been cremated as unclaimed.
On December 12, 1996, on the directive of the Supreme Court, this case was handed over to the CBI, in connection with the mass cremation of unidentified bodies in Punjab.
In the CBI investigation, it came to light that a police party, led by the then Station House Officer of Sarhali Gurdev Singh (who died during trial), forcibly picked up SPOs Shinder Singh, Desa Singh, Sukhdev Singh and two others, Balkar Singh alias Bobby and Daljit Singh from the house of a government contractor Joginder Singh, where they were on duty as gunmen on June 27, 1993.
They were illegally kept and tortured at the police station to extract confessions regarding their involvement in a robbery at Sangatpura village, and only Daljit Singh was let off.
On July 2, 1993, a case was registered at Sarhali police in which it was claimed that the three SPOs had absconded from duty along with arms issued to them.
Then ten days later, on July 12, a police party led by then DSP Bhupinderjit Singh (who retired as SSP) and inspector Gurdev Singh staged a fake encounter, and the police claimed that the victims were killed in crossfire while attempting to recover stolen arms from terrorists.
The bodies were cremated as unclaimed despite being identified by ASIs Gulabarg Singh and Davinder Singh (who retired as a DSP).
On July 28, 1993, three more abducted persons, Sukhdev Singh, Sarabjit Singh, and Harvinder Singh, were reportedly shot dead in a second alleged fake encounter by the police.
Fake recoveries and fabricated documents were used to justify these killings as anti-terror operations, stated the investigations.