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Mohali: The special CBI court in Mohali on Saturday convicted three officers of Punjab Police in a fake encounter case dating to 1993.
It, however, acquitted two officers due to a lack of evidence. The convicted officers are Karamjit Singh, the then ASI, who was sentenced to three years of rigorous imprisonment and fined Rs 50,000. He was also sentenced to a one-year term under Section 342 of the IPC. Manjit Singh, then an inspector, was sentenced to eight years in prison and fined Rs 50,000 under section 364 of the IPC. The court also sentenced him to five years of rigorous imprisonment and fined Rs 50,000 under Section 120-B of the IPC, along with a one-year sentence under Section 342 of the IPC. Gurmej Singh, then a sub-inspector, was sentenced to eight years and fined Rs 50,000 under section 364 of the IPC. Gurmej was also sentenced to five years and a Rs 50,000 fine under section 120-B of the IPC.
Two constables, Kashmir Singh and Harjit Singh, were acquitted by the CBI court. The case was registered on orders passed by the Punjab and Haryana high court in a criminal writ petition filed by Darshan Singh on Sep 12, 2005. In this petition, he said on March 27, 1993, around 8.30am, ASI Karamjit, along with unknown police officials from Rawalpindi police station in Phagwara tehsil of Kapurthala, came to his house in Rawalpindi village and picked up his son, Palwinder Singh alias Pappu, in the presence of his parents and villagers.
Thereafter, the whereabouts of Palwinder were not known. The petitioner alleged that he apprehended that his son was detained in some police station or the police might have eliminated his son and disposed of his body. Accordingly, FIR No. 18 registered on April 5, 1993, at Sultanpur Lodhi police station, relating to the encounter in which Palwinder was shown to have been killed on April 5, 1993, was re-registered in CBI. Upon completion of the investigation, CBI filed a chargesheet under sections 120-B, 342, and 218 of the IPC against Karamjit Singh, Manjit Singh, Gurmej Singh, Kashmir Singh, and Harjit Singh. The CBI court framed charges under sections 120-B, 342, 364, and 302 IPC against all five officers. After hearing the case, the court convicted three officers and acquitted two constables in the case.
