At the age of 19, she lost her husband in a police meeting. At 48, Punjab Police Says Op Was Fake » Today Latest Stories
Dalbir Kaur said the legal battle was initiated by her in-laws.
Chandigarh:
Dalbir Kaur was just 19, and two months pregnant, when police in Punjab allegedly killed her husband in a fake ceremony and left his body as a terrorist in 1994.
The criminals were found alive four years later but Ms Kaur and her in-laws had to fight a long and difficult battle which finally, after 29 years, culminated in a special investigation team informing the high court that the encounter was staged. – controlled. A case has also been registered against the former chief inspector and other police officers.
Sukhpal Singh was a resident of Kala Afghana village in Gurdaspur district, and Ms Kaur, now 48, says he was abducted by the police in 1994 and later shot dead to collect money for wanted terrorist Gurnam Singh Bandala. For Mrs. Kaur and her family, the problem had just begun.
“My in-laws ran from pillar to post for justice, they are the ones who started this fight. It took 29 years and the SIT has now said that the encounter was fake, but my mother is dead. -law and my son on the way,” said Ms Kaur.
Ms Kaur’s daughter was one year old when her father was killed and has no memory of anything. “You can imagine what kind of life I have had without a father. I was not told about him and I found out what happened after a while,” said Jeevanjyot Kaur.
Time
In 1994, a team of Punjab police claimed to have killed Bandala. Sukhpal Singh’s family filed a lawsuit on July 29 that year, alleging that some police officers kidnapped and killed him in a fake encounter.
Bandala was captured alive in 1998. “My mother-in-law met Bandala’s criminals in prison to ask if they knew anything about their son’s whereabouts, but they didn’t,” said Dalbir Kaur.
In 2007, 13 years after the encounter, an investigation was ordered by the Director General of the police, JP Virdi, in 2007.
Virdi died in 2010, prompting an investigation. In 2013, Kaur approached the Punjab and Haryana High Court for a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation. In response to the request, the Punjab Police has launched another investigation, which is to be headed by Additional Superintendent of Police IPS Sahota. Later that year, the police also established a special investigation team.
It took another 10 years but, on December 10, 2023, the SIT, headed by Special DGP Gurpreet Kaur Deo, filed a statement in the Supreme Court that Sukhpal’s experience was manipulated and the initial police report (first information report) in the case was registered under false pretenses.
The court was also told that a new case of tampering with evidence and in various other sections of the Indian Penal Code was registered in October against the former Inspector General Paramraj Singh Umranangal, the former Deputy Commissioner of Police in Morinda, Jaspal Singh, and his assistant. sub-inspector Gurdev Singh (now deceased).
The Endless Pursuit of Justice
Advocate Pradip Virk of the Punjab and Haryana High Court praised the family for tirelessly pursuing the case. “Glory should go to this family that followed this case, lawyers can fight the case when their family does, they have shown that if you follow this case then even God gives justice.
