Ludhiana: CBI team visits police station, records statements of cops

Three months after lodging an FIR against four Ludhiana cops, an inspector, an assistant sub-inspector (ASI) and two women constables in custodial death after a woman, Ramandeep Kaur, had died in Dugri Police station on August 5, 2017, a CBI team along with forensic experts visited the police station on Friday and recorded the statement of police personnel. The CBI team found that the police have already renovated the barrack where the woman was lodged and the bathroom where she was found dead. The CBI officials reprimanded the police officials for damaging the case property, which should be reinstated. The police officials had no answer to it, and they were seen passing the buck.

A team of three CBI officials and four forensic experts reached Dugri Police station on Friday morning. The CBI team summoned all four police personnel facing CBI FIR and other officials, who were deputed there on the day of the incident. Some of the police personnel tried to excuse themselves from the matter claiming that they were not present on duty the day the woman died. When CBI officials scanned the attendance record, the police personnel were found present.

The CBI team also sought information from the police personnel about the knife that was found in the possession of Kaur who was in police custody. Not only this, but all the police officials also pretended ignorance about the cut marks on the wrists of the woman.

The CBI team videographed the investigation process and recorded the statement of the complainant Mukul Garg, of Ludhiana, fiancé of the victim. The CBI team also visited the house of Garg.

Garg said that as a witness, the CBI team recorded his statement.

The CBI lodged an FIR against four cops, inspector Dalbir Singh, ASI Sukhdev Singh, women constables Rajwinder Kaur and Amandeep Kaur on May 10. The CBI had slapped section 304-A (causing death due to negligence) against them.

The FIR was lodged following the statement of Mukul Garg of Urban Estate Dugri in the plea mentioned that the Dugri Police on August 3, 2017, arrested his fiancé Ramandeep Kaur along with him in an alleged illegal withdrawal of money. He added that Kaur had died due to interrogational torture meted out to her on the intervening night of August 4 and 5, 2017.

Death due to suicide not strangulation: SIT

In March 2019, after high court’s intervention a special investigative team (SIT) was constituted, which based on record and medical opinion said that the death was due to suicide and not due to strangulation. But an FIR was registered for causing death by negligence against four cops.

During the hearing of the case, the court raised concerns about hesitation cuts on Kaur’s wrists and the recovery of a knife from her undergarments, which was handed over to ASI Sukhdev Singh but then misplaced. The SIT report noted discrepancies, including the knife’s disappearance after being handed over by doctors conducting the post-mortem examination. The SIT report itself recorded that the women constables on duty had no satisfactory reply as to how and from where the knife came into the possession Kaur who was in police custody. Not only this, but all the police officials also pretended ignorance about the cut marks on the wrists of the woman.

The CBI has also mentioned the court orders and the copy of the FIR lodged by the Dugri police station of Ludhiana on June 13, 2019.

Mukul Garg alleged that the police have used all the tactics to hush up the matter and no action was taken against the culprits responsible for the death of Kaur, which forced him to approach the Punjab and Haryana high court. As the matter is with the CBI, he can expect justice to her.