Chandigarh/Mohali: A special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court in Mohali on Thursday convicted six Punjab Police personnel for the abduction and murder of Baba Charan Singh and his five relatives in a 27 year-old-case. The court also acquitted three police officials.
Singh and five of his family members had gone missing under mysterious circumstance in April 1993. Their whereabouts are yet to be ascertained.
The court found Inspector Suba Singh, Assistant Sub-inspector (ASI) Sauba Singh, Head Constable (HC) Lakha Singh, and Sub-inspectors (SI) Bikramjit Singh, Sukhdev Singh and Sukdev Raj Joshi guilty.
It sentenced Suba Singh and Sukhdev Singh to 10 years' rigorous imprisonment with a fine of Rs 50,000 each. Bikramjit Singh was sentenced to 10 years RI and fined Rs 20,000.
Joshi, currently posted as personal assistant to the chief minister's security adviser Khubi Ram, was sentenced to five years in jail and fined Rs 30,000. The court sent Suba Singh and Lakha Singh to two years’ probation and imposed a fine of Rs 50,000 each.
Meanwhile, the court acquitted DSP Gurmit Singh Randhawa, Inspector Kashmir Singh and SI Nirmal Singh. Kashmir Singh is currently serving as AIG counter-intelligence, while Nirmal Singh retired as an inspector.
Seven policemen, including Senior Superintendent of Police Ajit Singh Sandhu, died in the course of the trial.
Tarn Taran-based religious leader Baba Charan Singh and five of his family members- his three brothers Meja Singh, Kesar Singh, Gurdev Singh, his brother-in-law Gurmej Singh and his son Balwinder Singh went missing under mysterious circumstances in April 1993.
Baba Charan Singh’s wife Surjit Kaur had moved the Punjab and Haryana High Court in 1997, following which the case was transferred to the CBI. Surjit Kaur told the court that Baba Charan Singh, his three brothers Meja Singh, Kesar Singh, Gurdev Singh, his brother-in-law Gurmej Singh and his son Balwinder Singh were picked up by the police and kept in illegal custody for 43 days and tortured.
The challan in the case was filed in 2003. The CBI had concluded that the six were abducted from different places after illegal detention, false cases were registered against them.
“After all these years, it is still unclear if Baba Charan Singh and his five relatives are dead or alive. It has just been established that they were kept in illegal custody and tortured,” said Satnam Singh, the lawyer for the complainant.
In the meanwhile, three different pleas, seeking summoning of Khubi Ram, chief security adviser to Punjab chief minister, as an additional accused in the case is pending before the High Court. The three petitions were earlier dismissed by the lower court. Khubi Ram was posted as SP (operation), Tarn Taran at the time of the incident. The CBI has already denied his involvement.
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