A city-based lawyer HC Arora on Sunday appealed to the Punjab Governor VP Singh Badnore to review his decision to grant pardon to four murder-convicted cops “in larger interest of public and democracy”.
The news papers have carried stories of pardon granted by your majesty to four cops — three cops from Uttar Pradesh namely Ravinder Kumar Singh, Brij Lal Verma, and Onkar Singh Yadav, and a Punjab Police former Inspector Harinder Singh.
Arora, in his letter to the Governor, maintained that the “grant of pardon to cops convicted for murder of a young man, by showing a fake Police encounter, is fraught with very danger consequences, as pardon has washed away all the sins of these cops...They have become sacrosanct”.
He said that the stigma of conviction for murder has been washed away, and they would remain in service, and get promotions, as if they never committed offence of murder, notwithstanding the fact that they have spent some period of two-three years in prison.
“Releasing such murder convicted cops by granting them pardon is fraught with very dangerous consequences for the society or general public, as also the family members of the murdered young man, namely, Harjit Singh,” he said.
Arora pointed that in the case titled ‘DIG vs Rajaram, AIR 1960 AP 259 (261-262)’, it has been held that the “effect of pardon and amnesty is to absolve the person not only from the penal consequences of the offence, but also from civil disqualifications, such as loss of office following from his conviction”.