GURGAON: Ambala Sessions. Judge A.S. ‘Garg has turned down the bail ‘petition filed by former Haryana Director General ‘of Police Laxman Das on May 22, “As a consequence three Haryana policemen, including an inspector have now been remanded to judicial custody by the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate,” said a CBI official.

Inspector Narsingh and Constables Ramesh Chander and Sube Singh were arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation on May 12 in connection with the mysterious deaths of Jatinder Pahal and Randhir Singh.

Acting on instructions received from the Punjab and Haryana High Court, « team from the CBI conducted raids on the offices and residences of two senior Haryana Police officials.

‘The team, led by S P (CBI) SR Aggarwal aided the premises of the Senior Superintendent of Police (Rewari), Dr.B.K. Sinha, and Inspector Narsingh on the morning of February 2.

A case was registered on the directions of the Punjab and Haryana High Court after a formal complaint was lodged by Jatinder Pahal’s mother, Ishwar Devi. She had claimed that her son was taken into police custody and then taken to a secluded spot where he and Randhir Singh were murdered.

Jatinder Pahal and Randhir Singh, two alleged criminals, had been arrested in connection with the kidnapping of Lakhoo, 1 local resident, in October 1994.

‘The police had taken the two to village Gangana (Sonepat) in connection with investigations into their alleged crime. The 1wo were subsequently killed at Gangana, in what police officials had described as an armed encounter.

The police claim that their party was attacked by armed gang and in the ensuing males both Pahal and Singh were killed. Ironically, only two constables received minor injuries.

‘The inquest report reveals that Pahal and Singh were shot at close range. Seven bullets were lodged in Pahal’s face.

The police claim that the gang which ‘attacked them that fateful night of October 25, 1994 had cone to help the two. Escape. The assailants allegedly asked Pahal to escape while they fired on the police. Dr.B.K. Sinha was serving in his capacity as SSP, Jind at the time of the incident ‘while Narsingh was an Inspector. The CBI investigating officer said “the case involves senior Haryana police officials,”

“There is more 1o the matter than meets the eye,” the official said while claiming that there is no concrete evidence to link Dr Sinha w the murder of the two, the ‘official admitted that “there appears to be 4 deep-rooted conspiracies.”

Meanwhile, the raids on the residences and offices of the two police officers have revealed interest in documents, declining to go on record for official reasons, Mr.S.R. Aggarwal who conducted the raids, however, said, “Though we did not come up with anything from Dr. Sinha’s Gurgaon residence, documents seized from his Rewari office have proved to be very valuable.” Documents relating to the registry of residential plots and a40acre farm located in Gurgaon were ‘recovered during the raid at Sinha’s premises.

 

‘The police officers spoken to in connection with this case were, however, hesitant to goon record well aware of the “true circumstances” under which the two were killed. All they were willing to divulge was that *Pahal and Singh were agents of some senior Haryana minister.’ The official said, “When the criminals got out of hand, the police were instructed to deal with them.”

‘The incident is just one of the many related to police brutality. One hopes this incident, bizarre as it may be and the resulting convictions, will serve us a deterrent to policemen. Who behave in manner that does not befit them?

Article extracted from this publication >>  May 29, 1996