Fake encounter case: Two former Punjab Police officers sentenced to life imprisonment

The court of Special CBI Judge, Rakesh Kumar, sentenced former sub-inspector (SI) Tarsem Lal, then posted at CIA Majitha in Amritsar, and Inspector Kishan Singh to life in prison for killing four men — Sahib Singh, Dalbir Singh, Balwinder Singh, and an unidentified person — in a fake encounter in 1992.

The court convicted the two police officers to life in prison, besides slapping a fine of Rs 2 lakh each on them under Section 302 (murder) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). Besides this, the duo was sentenced to two years in jail under Section 201 (destruction of evidence) and a fine of Rs 15,000, and another two years in prison under Section 218 (public servant framing incorrect record to save a person from punishment) and a fine of Rs 20,000.

According to details, the four men in the case were murdered on the night of September 13, 1992, in Dhar-Deo village under Mehta Police Station limits by a 20 member police party headed by Inspector Rajinder Singh.

A team of Mehta police station in Amritsar had brought the three persons — Sahib Singh, Dalbir Singh and Balwinder Singh — to the police station and then claimed that the trio had been killed in cross firing while they were being taken for the recovery of weapons on September 13, 1992. Police claimed that some militants had attacked the police party in an attempt to free the men from police custody.

The family of Sahib Singh, however, did not buy the police theory and decided to approach a higher court.
Sahib Singh’s father Kahan Singh moved the Punjab and Haryana High Court, following which the case was hnaded over to the CBI, which registered an FIR on February 28, 1997, against Inspector Rajinder Singh; the then SHO of Mehta police station, Inspector Kishan Singh; then additional SHO of Mehta police station, and sub-inspector (SI)
Tarsem Lal.

The CBI filed chargesheet against the three officers on February 1, 1999, and all evidence was recorded by 2005.