Twenty-five years after the son-in-law of Shaheed Bhagat Singh’s sister Parkash Kaur, Kuljit Singh Dhatt, was killed in an alleged fake encounter in 1989, the Hoshiarpur local court on Friday awarded five-year jail sentence to three Punjab police cops.
The case was registered against five Punjab police officers — the then SP (Operations) SPS Basra, Dasuya Station House officer (SHO) Jaspal Singh, Dasuya Deputy Superintendent of Police Ajit Singh Sandhu, Tanda SHO Sardul Singh and Garhdiwala police post in-charge Sita Ram.
As Sandhu and Sardul Singh died during this long period, the court of Additional District and Sessions Judge Poonam R Joshi announced the judgment against Basra, Jaspal Singh and Sita Ram, who were facing the trial, holding them guilty in the fake encounter case.
After Parkash Kaur made an appeal to the Supreme Court against the fake encounter case, a Judicial Commission under the chairmanship of Justice (Retd) Hl Randev was constituted on September 9, 1990, which submitted its report in 1993. Following this, a case was registered against the five cops.
In July 1997, Jaspal Singh petitioned in Punjab and Haryana High Court against the FIR against him and others. The case in High Court remained pending up to 2009 and the family members of Kuljit Singh Dhatt again approached the Supreme Court seeking justice.
Supreme Court, then, directed the High Court to run the trial and the trial started in the court of Hoshiarpur.