30 year old case, the court of Additional Sessions Judge Parminder Singh Rai of Gurdaspur has sentenced two police officers who engaged in fake competition to life imprisonment and a fine of five lakh rupees each. Among the punished employees are ASI Channan Singh and ASI Tarlok Singh posted at Dera Baba Nanak police station.

According to the news of Punjabi Jagran, the complainant in this case, Lakhbir Kaur, widow of Harjit Singh, a resident of Alawalpur Kalanur village, had filed a case in the court. On the basis of Lakhbir Kaur’s complaint, charges were brought against the accused under sections 302, 364 of the IPC. The complainant said that on 21 March 1993 in the afternoon, she was returning from village Bhoma along with her son Balwinder Singh in a bus.

His acquaintance Virsa Singh, his wife Sukhwinder Kaur and son Baljinder Singh alias Latu were also traveling in the same bus. When the bus stopped at the bus stop of Talwandi Rama, suddenly the SHO of Dera Baba Nanak Police Station Baldev Singh, Constable Channan Singh, Constable Nirmal Singh and some other policemen entered the bus. They forcibly removed his son Balwinder Singh and the young man Baljinder Singh alias Latu who was traveling with him from the bus. When asked about this to the police, they told that these youths are terrorists.

The police took them to Dera Baba Nanak police station. The family and the villagers went to the Dera Baba Nanak police station and demanded the youth’s release, saying they were innocent, but they were not heard. At that time, the police also kept another youth named Balwinder Singh in the police station. On March 23, 1993, the police forced them into a vehicle and took them to the village of Kathyali. The youths were shouting that they would be killed.

After a while, when the police vehicle reached the village of Kathiyali, the villagers heard the sound of gunshots. Thus the youth was killed in a fake encounter. Complainant Lakhbir Kaur said that her son’s body was not even given. The police cremated themselves.

The trial of this important case lasted for almost thirty years. Meanwhile, three other accused SHO Baldev Singh, ASI Gyan Singh and Head Constable Nirmal Singh had died. In this way, the court sentenced two policemen, ASI Chanan Singh and Tarlok Singh, to life imprisonment and a fine of five lakh rupees. This amount of fine will be handed over to the victim’s family