Punjab Police officer convicted of ‘fake encounter’ murders after 26 years

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) special court in Mohali on Wednesday sentenced retired Punjab Police official Harjinder Pal Singh to life in prison for his role in a ‘fake encounter’ killing in 1993.

Two men, Gurmail Singh and Kuldeep Singh, who were in police custody at that time, were killed in the incident. The conviction only adds support to the decades old allegations made against Punjab police, that Sikhs have long been victims of ‘fake encounters’. This has been documented in the thousands by Sikh organisations such as Ensaaf and has also been highlighted in the 2018 Sikh Liberation Front report Criminalising Sikh Dissent.

“You will spend the rest of your life in jail,” said judge NS Gill, whilst awarding the life sentence to Harjinder Pal who policed in the the Rupnagar (Ropar) district of Punjab, under sections 302 (murder) and 218 (public servant framing incorrect record ) of the Indian Penal Code. The court also imposed a fine of Rs 5 lakh on Harjinder, of which Rs 2 lakh each will be given to families of Gurmail and Kuldeep.

Besides him, the court also convicted the then Ropar DSP Avtar Singh and sub-inspector Bachan Dass under Section 218 (for framing incorrect record) of the IPC and awarded them two-year jail term and Rs 20,000 fine each. The court, however, released them on a year’s probation, which means they will not go to jail but remain under the court’s supervision.

The court acquitted three other cops, then DSP (detective) Ropar Jaspal Singh, constables Harji Ram and Karnail Singh.

In May 1997, the CBI had registered a case against six cops on the directions of Punjab and Haryana high court after the families of Gurmail and Kuldeep sought an investigation into the case. An FIR (First Incident Report) registered on February 1, 1993 on the incident stated that Harjinder was taking Kuldeep and Gurmail (who were in police custody) to make recovery of arms when they were ambushed by unidentified persons near Bhadal village in Ropar. The police had claimed that in the cross-fire between the police and the attackers, Gurmail and Kuldeep were killed. The police had even cremated Gurmail and Kuldeep, declaring them “unidentified”.

In their defence, the accused cops produced affidavits of victims’ wives Kulbir Kaur and Sukhwinder Kaur, in which they had exonerated the police of any wrongdoing. However, the CBI investigations pointed out that the affidavits were obtained under pressure, a well known tactic of Punjab police used to distance themselves from such incidents.

The CBI investigations pointed out that the arrest of Kuldeep and Gurmail, and their subsequent killing in encounter on February 1, 1993, were stage-managed. The CBI said the police showed recovery of 42 shells of AK-47 and 14 shells of .315 rifle from the encounter site, but only 42 shells were deposited. The CBI said even when two persons were killed, none of the cops sustained injury. The CBI said the police even failed to show the soiled clothes of the deceased.

The CFSL report said that no opinion was offered about whether the victims were handcuffed at the time of the attack. Gurmail and Kuldeep were shown as “terrorists” at the time of the arrest, something which is again typical of these incidents, but police failed to show their criminal record.

Kulbir Kaur, the wife of Kuldeep Singh, had claimed that her husband was abducted by a police party led by Police officer Jaspal Singh from their house on January 15, 1993, at about 3.30 am and was never seen again.

“Though delayed, justice has finally been done,” said Gurmail’s widow Sukhwinder Kaur. “I was 8-month pregnant when I, along with Gurmail’s father, mother and two minor children, were picked up by the police to put pressure on my husband” she said. Gurmail, she claimed, had surrendered on December 26, 1992.