In another case of police brutality, Bikramjit Singh, who was undergoing life imprisonment for the last over a decade in the Amritsar Central Jail and was missing for the last 10 days, was declared dead, killed during police interrogation.
Addressing a Press conference here, Amritsar Police Commissioner Jatinder Singh Aulakh said, Bikramjit was recently shifted to Guru Nanak Dev Hospital outside the jail for backbone problem. He was whisked away by the Batala police without following the lawful procedure, interrogated inhumanly whereupon he died in custody.
It was a police team led by Inspector Narang Singh who laid the trap to nab Bikramjit during a drug deal when he was in hospital, whisked him away to Batala town where he was interrogated throughout the night and died during torture in police custody.
Aulakh said in an attempt to destroy vital evidence, the body of Bikram was thrown in a river near Ropar. Police station Kiratpur found a body floating in the river and cremated it when nobody came forward to claim it.
With the arrest of police officials who were guarding Bikramjit Singh during his stay in the hospital, the truth unfolded, how Bikram was whisked away and died following torture.
The Amritsar Police Commissioner said the arrest of Bikram was illegal as it was never brought on police record. “There is set procedure to be followed through court of law to obtain permission to put the accused in police custody from jail for any kind of investigation that was never followed,” said Aulakh.
Aulakh said that two police ASIs Gulshanbir Singh and Surinder Singh have been arrested and rest of the accused, including Inspector Narang Singh are yet to be arrested.
Dalbir Singh, brother of victim, had alleged that his brother Bikram was abducted by police and by their rival party who wanted to avenge the killing of six of their relatives.
The six murders were a result of an old enmity in 2002, in which Bikramjit and four of his relatives were sentenced to 20 years imprisonment.
Dalbir informed that on the evening of May 5, when he had gone to the hospital to handover food to his brother, he saw some people pushing and bundled his brother into a SUV and sped away.
In a complaint to police, Dalbir named inspector Naugrang Singh, Assistant Sub-Inspector Gulshanbir Singh, constables Aman Singh and lakhwinder Singh for their involvement in his brother’s abduction.
Earlier, from day one, police were claiming that Bikram had fled away from police custody while throwing dust in their eyes and family was claiming that a deep rooted conspiracy was hatched to eliminate Bikram.