Ex-DIG Kultar Singh, 5 others held guilty in 2004 Amritsar mass suicide case

Tribune News Service
Amritsar, February 17

Former DIG Kultar Singh, along with five others, including a DSP-rank officer, was held guilty by a local court in a mass suicide case dating back to 2004.

Five members of a family had committed suicide by consuming poison at Choke Moni in the walled city.

Kultar Singh was SSP Amritsar at the time when the family had ended their lives. The family had accused the SSP of extortion and criminal intimidation that made them take the extreme step.

The quantum of sentence will be announced on February 19.

Hardip Singh, his wife, mother, and the couple's two children killed themselves on October 31, 2004.

Before the suicide, the family had written a note on walls of a room of their house and had also sent copies of the suicide note to friends and acquaintances by post.

Kultar Singh was posted as the Senior Superintendent of Police here when they committed suicide. The family blamed the police for forcing them to take the extreme step.

Deputy Superintendent of Police Hardev Singh was among the convicted.

In 2009, Punjab Human Rights Organisation activist Sarabjit Verka first brought the matter before a local court and sought justice for the victims as "police was not probing the case seriously despite having instituted three probes". With IANS