Chandigarh, Jul 24: A CBI court in Mohali has sentenced a former Punjab Police officer to 10 years of rigorous imprisonment in a 1993 fake encounter case of two police constables.
The court of special CBI Judge Baljinder Singh Sra also imposed a fine of Rs 50,000 on Paramjit Singh, who was then the station house officer of Beas in Amritsar. Singh (67) retired as a superintendent of police.
In its order on Wednesday, the court acquitted three other accused — the then inspector Dharam Singh (77), the then assistant sub inspector Kashmir Singh (69) and the then ASI Darbara Singh (71) — in the case.
Another accused, the then sub-inspector Ram Lubhaya died during the trial of the case.
Constable Surmukh Singh of Muchhal village in Baba Bakala and constable Sukhwinder Singh of Khiala village were picked up by police on April 18, 1993.
Surmukh Singh was taken from his home by the then SHO Paramjit Singh of Beas police station, while Sukhwinder was picked up by then SI Lubhaya in a scooter theft case.
The parents of Sukhwinder visited the Beas police station but were not allowed to meet their son.
Later, the Majitha police claimed that two unidentified militants had been killed in an encounter. Their bodies were cremated without identification, according to the CBI investigation.
A week later an untraced report was filed by the then SHO, claiming that there was no need for further investigation in the matter.
However, the CBI during its probe found that the encounter was staged and police fabricated documents to make it appear genuine.
The CBI, which carried out the investigation on the directions of the Supreme Court in 1995, probe found that the two unidentified militants who were killed in the encounter were actually the two police constables.
Referring to the families of the deceased constable, the court in its order stated, “The court can very well imagine the plight of the family members who have been running from pillar to post since 1993 to seek justice. They must have incurred a lot of expenses for that and need monetary compensation for their rehabilitation.”
The court directed the secretary, district legal service authority Mohali to consider the case of the victims’ families for award of compensation.
CBI public prosecutor Anmol Narang, assisted by advocates Sarabjit Singh Verka, Pushpinder Singh Natt and Jagjit Singh represented the complainants. (Agencies)
