Amritsar, Aug 2: Thirty-two years after seven young men were killed in staged encounters in Amritsar, a CBI court has convicted five retired Punjab Police officers, including a former Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP), for their roles in the fake killings. The convicts — former Bathinda SSP Bhupinderjit Singh (61), Inspector Suba Singh (83), DSP Davinder Singh (58), ASI Gulbarg Singh (72), and ASI Raghubir Singh (63) — were found guilty of criminal conspiracy, murder, and destruction and fabrication of records. All five were taken into custody and sent to jail after the verdict. The quantum of sentence will be pronounced on Monday.
The case, rooted in the tumultuous 1990s, involves the abduction, torture and killing of seven youths from Rani Villah village. Among them were three Special Police Officers (SPOs) — Shinder Singh, Desa Singh and Sukhdev Singh — who were illegally detained and later falsely shown as killed in separate encounters in 1993 by Tarn Taran police. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) registered the case in 1999 following the complaint of Narinder Kaur, wife of slain SPO Shinder Singh, whose body was cremated as “unclaimed” despite being identified in official records.
On June 27, 1993, a team led by Sarhali SHO Gurdev Singh forcibly took five men — SPOs Shinder Singh, Desa Singh, Sukhdev Singh, along with Balkar Singh alias Bobby and Daljit Singh — from the residence of government contractor Joginder Singh, where they served as armed guards. The five were detained at the Sarhali police station and allegedly tortured in custody in connection with a robbery in Sangatpura village. Only Daljit Singh was later released after Joginder Singh appealed for their freedom.
A few days later, Balkar Singh alias Kala was also picked up from Rani Villah village. Then, on July 12, 1993, the police, led by Bhupinderjit Singh — who was then DSP of Goindwal Sahib — claimed that while escorting a detainee, Mangal Singh of Karmuwala, for a recovery in a dacoity case, they were attacked by militants. In the supposed crossfire, Mangal Singh and three alleged assailants — Desa Singh, Shinder Singh and Balkar Singh — were killed. The police claimed recovery of arms, but forensic evidence later disproved the narrative. Post-mortem reports revealed signs of torture before death, and the recovered weapons did not match the official account.
Investigations also revealed that Sukhdev Singh, abducted on June 27, was later handed over to the Verowal police. Along with Sarabjit Singh from Hansawala and Harwinder Singh from Jalabad (Kaithal), he was killed in another staged encounter. This second fake encounter was led by Bhupinderjit Singh and Inspector Suba Singh, then SHO Verowal.
The CBI filed its chargesheet in 2002, naming ten officials, including Bhupinderjit Singh, SHO Gurdev Singh, SI Gian Chand, and others. Five of the accused died during the prolonged proceedings, and the trial was stayed for over a decade between 2010 and 2021. Of the 67 witnesses cited by the CBI, 36 died before they could testify; only 28 witnesses ultimately appeared in court.
“The conviction has come after decades of perseverance. Families have waited for justice for too long,” said Sarabjit Singh Verka, counsel for the victims’ families.
The conviction marks a rare judicial conclusion to one of Punjab’s darkest chapters, where enforced disappearances, fake encounters, and extra-judicial killings were widespread during the insurgency years.
