Mohali: Ex-SHO gets 10-year RI in 1992 abduction, disappearance case

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court in Mohali on Monday awarded 10-year rigorous imprisonment to a former station house officer (SHO) in a 1992 case involving abduction, illegal detention and disappearance of Sukhdev Singh, a vice-principal of a government school, and his 80-year-old father-in-law Sulakhan Singh, a freedom fighter from Bhakna in Tarn Taran district.

On December 18, CBI court judge Manjot Kaur found Surinderpal Singh, the then SHO of Sarhali police station guilty under Sections 120-B (criminal conspiracy), 342 (wrongful confinement), 364 (abducting someone for the purpose of murder) and 365 (abducting someone with the intent to secretly and wrongfully confine them) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

On Monday, the court sentenced Surinderpal to rigorous imprisonment for 10 years under Section 120-B and also imposed a fine of over ₹4 lakh on him.

Surinderpal was also convicted in 2005 and is currently serving life term in Barnala jail in human rights activist Jaswant Singh Khalra murder case. He was dismissed from service.

The former SHO was also sentenced to 10-year jail in another case involving the abduction and disappearance of four members of a family from Jio Bala village in Tarn Taran. Another accused, an assistant sub-inspector, died during the trial.

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 dead).

Avtar 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 teachers’ 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 said 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.

CBI public prosecutor Jai Hind Patel told the court that 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 and Sulakhan died and their bodies were disposed of in Harike canal, Verka said.

Sukhwant 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’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.