A CBI court here on Wednesday sentenced former Beas SHO Paramjit Singh, 68, to 10-year imprisonment for abduction in the 1993 fake encounter case of two Punjab Police constables in Amritsar.AdvertisementThe court also imposed a fine of Rs 50,000 on him.Three other accused — inspector Dharam Singh, the then SHO of Lopoke police station, ASI Kashmir Singh and ASI Darbara Singh of Lopoke police station — were acquitted by the court on the benefit of doubt.Sub Inspector Ram Lubhiya, the then incharge of Butala police post, died during the trial.Constables Surmukh Singh of Muchhal village in Baba Bakala and Sukhwinder Singh of Khiala village in Amritsar, both aged between 22 and 25 years, were picked up by police on April 18, 1993, kept in illegal detention, and then shown as unknown militants killed in an encounter by the Majitha police. Their dead bodies were cremated as unclaimed four days later.CBI public prosecutor Anmol Narang said Surmukh was picked up by the police party headed by inspector Paramjit Singh, the then SHO of Beas police station from his house on April 18,1993 at about 6 pm, and the same day at about 2 pm, another constable Sukhwinder Singh was picked up by SI Ram Lubhiya from his house.Next day, Balbir Kaur, mother of Sukhwinder Singh and father Dildar Singh visited Beas police station but Ram Lubhiya refused to allow them to meet Sukhwinder.Four days later, Majitha police, headed by then Lopoke SHO Dharam Singh, claimed neutralising two unknown militants in an encounter.Within a week, Lopoke police filed an untraced report in the alleged encounter, stating that there is no need for more investigation.On Supreme Court’s order, CBI initiated an inquiry on December 26, 1995 and recorded the statement of the deceased’s mother a year later. The CBI investigation established that two youths killed in an encounter were Sukhwinder Singh and Surmukh Singh.A case was registered by the CBI on February 28, 1997 and a chargesheet filed on February 1, 1999 against the accused Inspectors Dharam Singh and Paramjit Singh, SI Ram Lubhiya, ASI Kashmir Singh and ASI Darbara Singh for conspiracy, kidnapping, and destruction of evidence.Sarabjit Singh Verka, counsel for the victims’ families, said, “Although charges were framed against the accused in 1999 but the trial remained stayed in the higher courts from 2001-2022 on the basis of baseless petitions of the accused which were dismissed later on.“Due to this, statements of only 27 witnesses were recorded, some died, while others deposed in favour of accused police officers. Accused Ram Lubhiya also died during the trial. After 32 years of the occurrence of the fake encounter, the court has pronounced the judgment.”
Former Punjab cop gets 10-year jail in fake encounter case
