Sub-Inspector among two convicted in 30-year-old kidnapping case in Amritsar

Tribune News Service

Mohali, March 16

A CBI court convicted a Sub-Inspector and a retired constable for criminal conspiracy, kidnapping, illegal confinement and destruction of evidence in a case pertaining to disappearance of Amritsar Central Cooperative Bank clerk Kuldeep Singh in 1992.

The court of Special Judicial Magistrate, CBI, Mohali, awarded Jhirmal Singh and Suba Singh five and three years of rigorous imprisonment, respectively. The court also imposed a penalty on them.

Too little, too late: victim’s son

• Sandeep Singh, son of Kuldeep, said, “We suffered mental harassment and received threats from the accused. The sentence is too little, too late.”
• “I was eight-year-old when my father was kidnapped and killed. My mother Kashmir Kaur was just 32 years old when the incident took place. She raised four kids on her own,” he added

While Suba has retired, Jhirmal is posted as a Sub- Inspector at the Amritsar Commissionerate. Public Prosecutor Lisa Grover contended that the Tarn Taran police had picked up Kuldeep on June 2, 1992, from Amritsar and kept him in an illegal detention.

Kuldeep, who was a resident of Kotli Saru Khan village, was summoned by then Verowal SHO Suba regarding his alleged links with a militant named Gurmukh Singh Nagoke. He was last seen at the CIA Staff, Tarn Taran, till July 4, 1992. Later, his whereabouts were not known.

The CBI presented the chargesheet against CIA Staff Inspector Gurdev Singh, Constable Jhirmal and Suba. Gurdev died during the trial.

The CBI cited 39 witnesses. Of them 12 died during the trial and only 19 deposed in the case. The CBI prayed for maximum punishment for tampering/destroying the record at the Verowal police station and falsely showing Kuldeep killed in an encounter on October 15, 1993.

In June 1994, Kuldeep’ father Subedar Kartar Singh complained to the National Human Rights Commission, New Delhi, regarding his illegal detention. On April 30, 2001, on the directions of the NHRC, the case was transferred to the CBI. On December 23, 2004, the CBI filed a chargesheet against them.

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