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Journalism of Courage
Twenty-nine years after he went ‘missing’, Punjab Police is asking the public to provide any information regarding the whereabouts of the man whom his family believes was killed in a fake encounter. Police are also urging the general public to provide any information about the person who may be involved in his (Sukhpal Singh) ‘disappearance’.
An advertisement released by police reads, “General public is hereby informed that Sukhpal Singh, s/o Jagir Singh, resident of village Kala Afghana, Police Station Fatehgarh Churian, Police District Batala, District Gurdaspur, Punjab, aged about 21/22 years (in the year 1994), height 5’7″/5’8″ approx., is missing since 13.07.1994. In this regard, FIR No. 15 dated 15.03.2016 u/s 364/365 of IPC has been registered at Police Station Fatehgarh Churian, Batala, and is under investigation by a Special Investigation Team constituted by the Punjab and Haryana High Court. Any member of the public who has any information regarding the whereabouts of Sukhpal Singh or the person who may be involved in his disappearance may give information at the given address and contact numbers.”
However, Dalbir Kaur, the wife of Sukhpal Singh, claimed that he was already dead.
While speaking to The Indian Express, Dalbir Kaur alleged that the suspended Punjab Police IG, Parmraj Singh Umranangal, had killed Sukhpal Singh and showed his body as that of wanted militant Gurnam Singh Bandala, who is still alive.
As DSP Ropar, Umranangal had claimed credit for killing a wanted militant, Gurnam Singh Bandala, during an encounter on July 29, 1994. However, Bandala was caught alive in 1998, after which Sukhpal Singh’s family alleged that he (Sukhpal Singh) was the one killed during the encounter by Umranangal and later his body was shown as that of Bandala’s.
IPS Gurpreet Deo – the Special Director-General of Police for community affairs and chairperson of the SIT probing Sukhpal Singh’s alleged disappearance – confirmed that Umranangal was questioned in relation to the case.
Umranangal was suspended twice in the last four years in relation to NDPS cases and police firing on Sikh protesters in 2015.
“We had called Umranangal for questioning. We will submit the investigation report to the Punjab and Haryana High Court. We have been given two additional months to complete the probe. We can’t divulge details of the investigation in public,” Gurpreet Deo said when asked if Umranangal has been given a clean chit in this case, as the advertisement suggests that Sukhpal Singh could be missing and still alive.
“Sukhpal Singh has been missing from the word go. The allegation is that at that time he was taken away by police. The allegations against Umranangal came at a subsequent stage,” she added while speaking to The Indian Express.
Human rights activist Col G S Sandhu (retd) was the first to connect the dots and claim that the person killed on July 29, 1994, was Sukhpal Singh of Kala Afghana.
Col Sandhu (retd) and Sukhpal Singh’s family pursued the case and ensured that a probe was ordered under Additional Director General of Police (ADGP) J P Virdi in 2007. At a later stage, then ADGP IPS Sahota maintained in a probe report that the man killed on that day was not Gurnam Singh Bandala. However, the report also stated that it was not sure if the body was that of Sukhpal Singh.
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