CHANDIGARH: Justice M.S. Liberhan and Justice J.C. Verma last week ordered a CBI inquiry into the killing of Jagdish Singh, 32, his mother, 60, his wife, 26, his daughter, 3 and his son, 3 months, at the hands of Ropar police.
In a petition filed by Swaran Singh, brother of Jagdish Singh, through his counsel Ranjan Lakhanpal, Atul Lakhanpal and C.L.Lakhanpal, it was contended that Jagdish Singh and his family were killed by the Ropar police on May 25, 1991, a complaint was made to the Deputy Commissioner. Ropar. About the killings. The Deputy Commissioner ordered a judicial inquiry into the Whole matter and directed Pirthi Chand, SDM, to hold the inquiry, The SDM, after recording the evidence, gave a finding that Jagdish was first taken into custody, tortured by inhuman third degree methods and then shot at point blank range and killed. The SDM also reported that Jagdish’s mother, wife, daughter and son had been liquidated by the Ropar police, besides holding that Jagdish und his family had no links with militants.
On the basis of the inquiry report an FIR was registered against Ropar police officials, including Jaspal Singh, Inspector and Sub Inspector Balwant Singh of CIA staff on December 19, 1992, on the said FIR, the then SSP Ropar, and Sanjiv Gupta had ordered that the investigation shall proceed on day today basis and shall be completed within two months. The investigation had still not been completed.
‘The court observed that the way the slate proceeds in cases against police is suppressing facts and ordered a CBI probe into the whole matter, further directing that the inquiry be completed expeditiously.
S petitioner ralsing a law point as to whether certain medicines fall under the stringent provisions of Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic, Substances Act or not, came up for hearing before Justice H.S, Bedi of the Punjab and Haryana High Court.
Vikram Chaudhn, counsel for the petitioner, contended that a narcotic, namely Dextroprop oxyphene, should be present in more than 135 mgs per dosage unit in any medicine in order to drug it within the purview of the Act. He further contended that the quantity of the said narcotic in less than the prescribed limit was exempted from the mischief of the Act.
Moreover, the medicines recovered from the petitioner were of daily use, being ordinary pain killers. Therefore, quashing of the criminal proceedings was sought for.
After hearing the counsel for the petitioner, the judge issued notice to the state of Punjab and directed the stay of proceedings pending before the trial court.”
Article extracted from this publication >>May 1, 1996
