CHANDIGARH: The Chief Judicial Magistrate, Shekhar Dhawan, last week extended the police remand of Gurmeet Singh and Lakhwinder Singh, two accused in the Beant Singh assassination case, until September 18.
The two were arrested on Sept. Sand remanded to police custody for nine days.
Hundreds of onlookers had gathered at the district court premises for glimpse of the accused much before they were produced with muffled faces in the afternoon, the accused were, however, unmasked inside the court ‘on the directive of the CJM.
Initiating the proceedings, S.N. Saxena, special public prosecutor, and the deputy superintendent of police, CBI, Delhi, who represented the CBI, moved the application seeking further police remand of the accused for four days. Saxena pleaded that the police remand was necessary for a number of reason.
He said the CBI has arrested another accused, Jagtar Singh Tara, from Delhi on September 13 on the basis of the clues of the identity and address supplied by Gurmeet Singh during hi interrogation on September 12. Tara, who was allegedly the kingpin of the gang that assassinated the Punjab Chief Minister was likely to be brought to Chandigarh Friday for interrogation by the local branch of the investigation agencies, He said that the investigating team would like to confront the two accused with Jagtar Singh ‘Tara when he is brought here,
The CBI representative said;” “The investigation conducted so far has disclosed a deep-rooted conspiracy which was planned meticulously and executed ruthlessly and the aforesaid two accused persons had played a Pivotal role to ensure success till execution of the conspiracy.”
He further said that the investigating ‘agencies were yet to recover some of the incriminating articles and mate in from the possession of Lakhwinder Singh and Gurmeet Singh.
Moreover, since they were giving information in bits during their interrogation in police custody their further interrogation was necessary to explore the other aspects of the conspiracy and the mode of the commission of offence in the light of information provided by Tara, he added. Lakhwinder Sing hand Gurmeet Singh were also required for the lie detection test in Delhi.
The CBI also produced case diaries for perusal of the court, He said both were not required to be put up for test identification parade and various photographs had been flashed in media. The prosecution, however, did not have any objection if the accused persons were unmasked.
At this stage, the CJM accepted the plea of Chahal and ordered the CBI sleuth to uncover the faces of both Lakhwinder Singh and Gurmeet Singh.
The counsel of two accused were also allowed to meet them for two minutes in the open court,
Dhawan also accepted the suggestion of Chahal that rifle wielding security men should be ordered to leave the court room, “The SC directions are clear that no police or paramilitary person would enter the court room his with firearm,” remarked Chabal ‘and added that keeping of firearms. by the security personnel in the courtroom is contempt of the court.
Article extracted from this publication >> September 22, 1995
