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Khalra
murder: Four policemen get life terms
WSN Network
Chandigarh: Ruling that the seven-year rigorous imprisonment awarded
to four Punjab policemen by a lower court in the Jaswant Singh
Khalra murder case was inadequate, a Division Bench of the Punjab
and Haryana High Court on Tuesday enhanced their sentence to
rigorous imprisonment for life.
The
Bench comprising Justice Mehtab Singh Gill and Justice A N Jindal
ruled that the intent of sub-inspectors Satnam Singh, Surinder Pal
Singh and Jasbir Singh along with head constable Prithipal Singh was
clear.
Human rights activist Jaswant Singh Khalra was “abducted so that his
life could be extinguished” and the case against the four clearly
fell within the ambits of Section 364 of the IPC (abduction).
The
Judges had earlier held that Khalra was picked up from his house “at
the instance of SSP Ajit Singh Sandhu by DSP Jaspal Singh, Satnam
Singh, Surinder Pal Singh, Jasbir Singh and Prithipal Singh. He was
tortured at the Jhabal police station and shot dead there. Finally,
his body was disposed by them near the Harike bridge”.
Taking up the appeals and revision petitions filed in the matter,
the high court had also upheld the conviction and sentence awarded
in the matter to DSP Jaspal Singh, while acquitting ASI Amarjit
Singh.
While the DSP was sentenced to life imprisonment by the court of
Patiala’s additional sessions judge under Sections 302 and 34 of the
IPC, the other four were sentenced to seven-year imprisonment.
The
Bench had further held that the motive behind the commission of
offence was clear from the statement of witnesses.
Human rights activist Jaswant Singh Khalra had embarked on a mission
to look into the deaths of innocent people while searching for some
missing colleagues.
Khalra himself went missing on September 6, 1995. He was last seen
washing his car in front of his house in Amritsar. It was later
found that men from the Punjab Police had picked him up with an
intention to kill.
Besides the six sentenced by the lower court, the challan included
the names of Tarn Taran SSP Ajit Singh Sandhu and DSP Ashok Kumar.
Sandhu had allegedly committed suicide by jumping in front of a
train in May 1998, while Ashok Kumar died due to illness.
17
October, 2007
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