Fake Encounter: CBI court convicts five officers including former SSP

Fake Encounter: CBI court convicts five officers including former SSP

Darshan Singh Sodhi
Nabaz-e-Punjab, Mohali, August 1, 2025:
CBI Court Mohali convicted Former SSP Bhupinderjit Singh, Insp Suba Singh, DSP Davinder Singh, ASI Gulbarg Singh and ASI Raghbir Singh all retd for criminal conspiracy, murder, destruction and fabrication of record.
Today the Court of Baljnder Singh Sra, Special Judge CBI, Punjab, Mohali pronounced judgment in 32 years old case in which seven youths including three SPOs of same village I.e.of Rani Villah, were picked, illegally detained, tortured and then shown as killed in two encounters by the Tarn Taran Police.
Advocates Sarabjit Singh Verka, Jagjit Singh Bajwa and Pushpinder Singh Natt, who are representing the victims’ families, said that the investigation into the case was conducted by the CBI on the orders of the Supreme Court dated 12.12.1996. of Apex Court passed in the matter of cremation of large scale dead bodies as unclaimed by the Punjab Police. In 1997, CBI had registered Preliminary Enquiry and submitted reports before Supreme Court and then in 1999, registered regular case/RC:7(S) on statement of one Narinder Kaur i.e. wife of SPO Shinder Singh resident of village Ranivillah who was shown as killed in encounter and his dead body was cremated as unknown and unclaimed.
CBI Public Prosecutor told that during investigation by the CBI it established that in the early morning of 27.6.93, a police party led by Inspector Gurdev Singh, SHO, PS Sirhali forcibly picked up SPOs namely (1) Shinder Singh (ii) Desa Singh (iii) Sukhdev Singh S and (iv) Balkar Singh @ Bobby and Daljit Singh son of Joginder Singh all resident of Village Rani Vallah, PS Sirhali, Amritsar from the residence of Govt Contractor Joginder Singh in presence of their family members, where they were serving/doing duty as gunmen and thereafter they were taken to PS Sarhali, were they were illegally kept and badly tortured to admit their involvement in a robbery case of village Sangatpura and then took them to Village Rani Vallah to search their houses. Investigation also transpired that Joginder Singh Contractor and other respectable of the area approached Sarhali Police for release of above said persons but only Daljit Singh was released. On the other hand, on 2.7.1993, Sarhali police had registered a false case/FIR No.61/93 by concocting story that Shinder Singh, Desa Singh and Sukhdev Singh had absconded from duty alongwith arms/ammunition issued to them. Investigation also revealed that after 6/7 days of the abduction of aforesaid SPOs, one Balkar Singh @ Kala was also picked from his house at Village Rani Vallah. Investigation by the CBI further disclosed that on 12.7.1993, police party headed by Bhupinderjit Singh, the then DSP Goindwal Sahib and Insp Gurdev Singh SHO, PS Sirhali had shown that while taking one Mangal Singh of village Karmuwala to Village Gharka for recovery in a dacoity case, police party was attacked by the militants and during cross-firing Mangal Singh and three attackers were killed, who were lateron identified as Desa Singh, Shinder Singh and Balkar Singh @ Kala. One 303 rifle, One Stengun and One SLR alongwith used and live cartridges were shown as recovered from deceased persons. Regarding the alleged encounter, case/FIR No.72/93 was registered at PS Sarhali and record was fabricated to show the encounter as genuine. Although as per police file the bodies of attackers were shown as identified by ASI Gulbarg Singh and ASI Devinder Singh but surprisingly these were cremated as unidentified and unclaimed. The arms and ammunition shown as recovered in this encounter was send to CFSL for examination which opined that the empties collected by the police from the place of alleged encounter, could not be linked with the weapons shown as recovered from the deceased persons and anti mortem injuries as per PMRs also proves that deceased were tortured before death.
CBI investigation further disclosed that Sukhdev Singh who was abducted on 27.6.1993 alongwith SPOs by Sarhali police was lateron handed over to the police of PS Verowal. Investigation by the CBI also found that Verowal Police also abducted Sarabjit Singh from his Village Hansawala, Amritsar and Harwinder Singh r/o Jalabad from Kaithal, Haryana during June/July 1993 and lateron shown all three as killed in another encounter on 28.7.1993 with police party of Verowal Police headed by Bhupinderjit Singh DSP Goindwal and Insp.Suba Singh the then SHO PS Verowal, Tarn Taran. The police in order to justify the fake encounter on 28.07.93 prepared memo showing recovery of one Bolt Action rifle, one 12 bore SB gun and one 303 rifle alognwith used and live cartridges and by concocting story of encounter got registered a false case FIR No.44/93 on 28.07.93 at PS Verowal Tarn Taran to cover up the killings of aforesaid persons and prepared false documents.
Sarabjit Singh Verka, counsel for the victim families told that after completing investigation, CBI had presented charge sheet in 2002, against Bhupinderjit Singh DSP Goindwal, Insp. Gurdev Singh SHO Sarhali, SI Gian Chand, ASI Devinder Singh, ASI Gulbarg Singh, Insp.Suba Singh SHO, PS Verowal, ASI Jagir Singh, , ASI Raghubir Singh, HC Mohinder Singh, HC Aroor Singh but during the period 2010-21, trial of this case remained stayed and during this period five of the accused had died.

Verka also told that CBI had cited 67 witnesses in this case but unfortunately 36 witnesses died during delayed trial and only 28 deposed in this case and finally today five accused namely Bhupinderjit, Davinder, Suba , Gulbarg and Raghbir Singh are convicted for committing offense U/s 120 B, 120-B r/w 302 IPC, 120B r/w 201 IPC and 120B r/w 218 IPC and convict are taken into custody and sent to jail and now sentence will be pronounced on monday. Family members present in the court stated that after 32 years of occurrence justice is delivered.