Chandigarh/ Punjab (January 24, 2014): It is learnt that less than a year after Patiala’s Special Judge for CBI cases sentenced Amritsar’s Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Rural, Preetpal Singh Virk and Inspector Shamsher Singh to 10 years’ rigorous imprisonment in an abduction case, the Punjab and Haryana High Court has refused to suspend their sentence. The High court reportedly passed an order in this regard on January 20.
It may be recalled that on March 11, 2013 a special CBI court at Patiala had sentenced Amritsar (rural) senior superintendent of police (SSP) Preetpal Singh Virk to 10-year rigorous imprisonment after finding him, along with three other cops, guilty of illegal confinement and “kidnapping in order to murder” of a Punjab-level footballer in 1993.
Taking up their plea, Justice R. P. Nagrath said: “A perusal of the trial court’s judgment shows there is abundant evidence on record showing that appellant Preetpal Singh Virk was after the life of the victim (Tejinder Singh). Evidence shows that the family was asked to pay Rs 1 lakh for his release from police custody….”.
Tejinder Singh was abducted on May 14, 1993, and illegally detained by Virk and other policemen. He went to Kolkata to stay with his brother Jagrup Singh to avoid further harassment after he was released on June 8, 1993.
But Preetpal Singh Virk left Sangrur on July 5, 1993, on “secret” duty and arrived in Kolkata. He forcibly took away Tejinder Singh on July 13, 1993, from near his house in Howrah. Despite efforts, his family could not secure his release.
A judicial inquiry was marked to the Haryana District and Sessions Judge, Vigilance, after the victim’s father, Budh Singh, filed a writ petition in the High Court in 1994.
The court entrusted the matter with the CBI after the Sessions Judge, in his report, said that in all probability, Tejinder Singh had either been eliminated by Virk or was still being detained illegally.
Dismissing the petition, Justice Nagrath said: “It was contended for the appellants that there was a huge delay in initiating action by Budh Singh, father of the victim…
“That was the most turbulent period in the state of Punjab and any amount of delay in such a case cannot by itself be fatal, particularly when the complainant had to approach this court for redressal of his grievance”.