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24 Punjab
Police men say they didn't know they were fugitives
WSN Network
PATIALA: How
shameful can a state's face be is often clear from how brashly do
its security personnel behave and how effectively and quickly the
state can manage to get them before the law if they overstep the
line.
Two dozen of the
Punjab Police faces, some of them still serving, claimed they did
not get to know that they were proclaimed offenders in a murder
case. The murder had happened in 1992. And they had no way of
convincing the court or the people that they suddenly all found out
on the same day and decided to appear in the case all together.
One week after a
Punjab
police DSP who is proclaimed offender (PO)
in a murder case surrendered in a local court, remaining 24 POs in
the case also gave up in a local court on Monday. The 24 police
officers have filed an application in CBI court for recalling the
order. The court has fixed December 24 as next date of hearing.
“As all have got
transferred since the case was registered, they say that they never
got any information about the same. All learnt about their being
declared POs from newspapers and surrendered in a local court on
Monday” Satnam Singh Kaler, counsel of all policemen, said.
The case dates
back to 1992 when the CIA staff of Jalandhar district had taken
three police constables in their custody on the suspicion that the
trio had links with militants. But after some days, police constable
Baljit Singh was allegedly shot dead in an police encounter, while
two other constables, Rajwinder and Mukhtiar, were declared
absconding from police custody. Joga Singh, Rajwinder’s relative,
filed a writ petition with the
Punjab and
Haryana High Court in 1994 demanding a CBI probe. The HC directed
CBI to probe the allegations against the police.
While initially,
CBI had registered cases against some policemen, investigations
revealed the involvement of 25 cops and CBI registered two cases
against all the policemen. Now many of these policemen have retired,
while others have been promoted. On account of their continued
failure to appear, the CBI court declared all the policemen
proclaimed offenders on
June 11, 2008.
17
December
2008
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