Two ex-cops convicted for 1993 fake encounter

The special CBI judge, Mohali, on Thursday convicted two former Punjab Police officials in connection with a fake encounter in 1993. Those convicted are Dilbagh Singh, then DSP (city), Tarn Taran, who retired as a DIG, and Gurbachan Singh, then SHO, Tarn Taran (city) police station, who retired as a DSP.

They have been convicted for extrajudicial killing of Gulshan Kumar of Tarn Taran. As per the CBI, the accused detained him illegally on June 22, 1993 from his residence and later killed him in a fake encounter on July 22 that year. The quantum of sentence will be pronounced on June 7.

It is worth mentioning here that in compliance with the Supreme Court orders in November 1995 for investigating the matter related to cremation of a large number of unidentified bodies by the Punjab Police, the CBI had registered the case on February 28, 1997.

During inquiry, Chaman Lal deposed that his son Gulshan Kumar was abducted by a police party, led by then DSP Dilbagh Singh, before being killed and the body was cremated on July 22, 1993 without informing the family.

The CBI had filed a chargesheet on May 7, 1999 against Dilbagh Singh and Inspector Gurbachan Singh besides three others — then ASI Arjun Singh, then ASI Devinder Singh and then SI Balbir Singh — who expired during the trial. The charges were framed against them on February 7, 2000.