1992 disappearance case: Former SHO held guilty by CBI court
The judge of the CBI court found Surinderpal Singh, the then SHO of Sarhali police station, guilty under Sections 120-B, 342, 364, and 365 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC)
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court in Mohali on Wednesday convicted a former station house officer (SHO) in a 1992 case involving the abduction, illegal detention, and disappearance of Sukhdev Singh, a vice-principal, and his 80-year-old father-in-law, Sulakhan Singh, a freedom fighter from Bhakna in Tarn Taran district, Punjab. The court will pronounce the quantum of punishment on December 23.
Another accused assistant sub-inspector (ASI) died during the trial.
Judge Manjot Kaur of the CBI court found Surinderpal Singh, the then SHO of Sarhali police station at the time, guilty under Sections 120-B, 342, 364, and 365 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). Surinderpal was convicted in 2005 and is currently in jail serving a life sentence in the human rights activist Jaswant Singh Khalra murder case and appeared before the court via video conference. The ex-SHO has also been sentenced to 10 years in another case involving the abduction and disappearance of four family members from Jio Bala village in Tarn Taran.
According to the case, on the night of October 31, 1992, Sukhdev Singh and Sulakhan Singh were taken into custody by a police party led by ASI Avtar Singh (now deceased). Avtar Singh informed the family that the two were summoned for questioning by SHO Surinderpal Singh. Both were detained illegally at Sarhali police station for three days, during which family members and teacher union representatives met them and provided food and clothing. However, they went missing thereafter.
Sukhdev’s wife, Sukhwant Kaur, lodged multiple complaints with senior police officials, alleging that her husband and father-in-law were being falsely implicated in criminal cases, but no action was taken.
Counsel for the complainant, Sarabjeet Singh Verka, stated that Sukhdev Singh was serving as a lecturer and was vice-principal at a government senior secondary school in Lopoke, Amritsar district, while Sulakhan Singh was a close associate of freedom fighter Baba Sohan Singh Bhakna during the independence movement.
In 2003, police personnel approached Sukhwant Kaur and obtained her signatures on blank papers. A few days later, she received a death certificate for Sukhdev Singh, stating that he had died on July 8, 1993. The family was informed that Sukhdev Singh had died under torture and that his body, along with Sulakhan Singh’s, was disposed of in the Harike Canal, Verka said.
Sukhwant Kaur later approached the Supreme Court and the Punjab and Haryana high court regarding the abduction, illegal detention, and disappearance of her husband and father-in-law. In November 1995, during another case, the Supreme Court directed the CBI to investigate the mass cremation of unidentified bodies. Following this, the CBI recorded Sukhwant Kaur’s statement on November 20, 1996, and registered a case against ASI Avtar Singh, SHO Surinderpal Singh, and others under Sections 364/34 on March 6, 1997.
In 2009, the CBI filed a chargesheet against Surinderpal Singh and Avtar Singh and in 2016, the CBI court in Patiala framed charges under Sections 120-B, 342, 364, and 365 of the IPC.
Sulakhan Singh’s grandson, Charanjit Singh said, “Finally, we got justice after 32 years. These years shattered my family, but we are hopeful that the guilty will receive life imprisonment and die in jail.”
