‘Kidnapper’ who struck twice and remains without a trace

Nishan belongs to an influential family that owns some 60 acres of land and includes a number of what are known as “kakas”. At 19,he has faced 17 criminal cases already,the charges including rape and murder. Son of a retired Air Force officer,who died when he was very young,Nishan now has only his mother,having lost his sister too.

“When I was posted as SSP in Faridkot some three years ago,we rounded up this boy. He being a juvenile then,the sentences have never been strong,” said Paramraj Singh Umaranangal,who was DIG (Ferozepur) until being transferred recently. “Police officials should have kept an eye on his movements,” he said,admitting it was a lapse. Nishan is said to have political backing.

The girl’s family had stopped sending her to school after the first abduction. She was a bright student in Class X. Her father is a car dealer and her mother works with LIC.

“My wife was ready to leave for office. Just as we opened the gate,Nishan and another boy forced themselves in,” her father said. “Nishan grabbed our daughter by the hair and dragged her towards the car. I ran towards them. One of the boys opened fire while another began beating us up. I broke my arm; they hit my wife on the head and an arm. They even beat up my elderly parents and did not spare my elder daughter either.”

In the 20 minutes all this took,no one offered help. The kidnappers needed 15 of those minutes to free their white Ford Ikon from a manhole. The girl’s parents had to be admitted to hospital for their injuries.

Outrage

In the days immediately following the abduction,police officers tried to pass it off as an elopement rather than a kidnapping. This sparked huge public protests. The Goondagardi Virodhi Saanjhi Action Committee,supported by the Punjab Students’ Union,shut down Faridkot (also the home turf of the Badals) twice and the entire district once.

At the daily dharna outside the police station,five persons have been sitting on a hunger-strike by rotation,a role taken up by freedom fighters one day and passed on to,say,girl students from college the next. A lawyer who had applied for anticipatory bail to Nishan had to withdraw under public pressure.

The government has come under attack not only from Congress leaders,including Amarinder Singh,but even from the BJP’s Laxmi Kanta Chawla. Manpreet Singh Badal has participated in the dharna while SAD(B) MLA Deep Malhotra has come out in support of the family. Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and his son Sukhbir have not yet visited Faridkot.

Search

The Faridkot police booked Nishan Singh,his mother Navjot Kaur,local Akali leader Dimpy Samra and eight others. Eight to ten search teams were formed.

One of these teams did manage to recover the car from Moga and make two arrests. One was of Dalla,who was allegedly among the kidnappers,and the other of Pompy,in whose house the car was found. A girl was “put under surveillance” after her phone calls were “found to be mysterious”.

Police claimed to have raided close to 300 hotels in New Delhi and received a letter,ostensibly from the kidnapped girl,in which the writer claimed she had gone of her own will,and that she wanted her family to be held responsible if anything should happen to her and “her husband”. The police also released a set of photographs,supposedly of the “wedding” of Nishan and the girl — although they knew she is a minor.

“It was a mistake to have released the pictures and the letter and we have transferred the officers who did this,” ADGP S K Sharma later said.

DIG Umaranangal and SSP (Faridkot) G S Dhillon were transferred,followed by DSP Gurmeet Singh. The new probe team is headed by DIG Parmod Bhan and SSP Gurpreet Singh Toor.

The arrests have since risen to 11. These include that of Ghali. “Ghali is the one who opened fire. Along with Ghali and Dalla,we have arrested almost all the boys who helped Nishan in the kidnapping,” said IG N S Dhillon.

“Ghali got a call from Nishan in Tarn Taran days after the kidnapping,” the IG said. That has been the last hint of Nishan’s whereabouts.

‘Likes’

Nishan’s Facebook account shows he “likes” pages such as one made in the memory of gangster Parbhjinder Singh Dimpy,who was shot dead in Chandigarh. At the same time,his friends include people who were once accused of having killed Dimpy. UP ganglord Mukhtiar Ansari’s son Abbas Ansari is also a “friend” of Nishan,though the police feel this could be a fake account in Abbas’s name. Nishan is Class VIII dropout who likes guns and Chhota Rajan; his favourite films include Shootout at Lokhandwala.