AMRITSAR, July 23 — After more than three decades of legal delays, a CBI court on Wednesday sentenced 68-year-old former Beas SHO Paramjit Singh to 10 years in prison for abducting two Punjab Police constables and staging their deaths in a fake encounter in 1993.
The court also imposed a fine of ₹50,000 on Singh. Three other accused — then Lopoke SHO Inspector Dharam Singh, ASI Kashmir Singh, and ASI Darbara Singh — were acquitted for lack of sufficient evidence. A fifth accused, SI Ram Lubhiya, who was in charge of the Butala police post at the time, died during the trial.
The two victims — Constables Surmukh Singh from Muchhal village and Sukhwinder Singh of Khiala village, both in their early twenties — were picked up by police on April 18, 1993. They were illegally detained and later falsely labelled as unidentified militants killed in a gunfight by Majitha police. Their bodies were cremated as unclaimed on April 22, just four days later.
“Surmukh was taken from his home around 6 p.m. by a police team led by Inspector Paramjit Singh, while Sukhwinder was picked up earlier that day at 2 p.m. by SI Ram Lubhiya,” said Anmol Narang, CBI’s public prosecutor.
When Sukhwinder’s parents, Balbir Kaur and Dildar Singh, went to Beas police station the next day, Lubhiya denied them access to their son. Days later, the Majitha police — under Lopoke SHO Dharam Singh — announced the killing of two unidentified militants in an encounter.
Within a week, the Lopoke police filed an untraced report and closed the investigation, stating no further inquiry was necessary.
On December 26, 1995, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) launched an inquiry on the orders of the Supreme Court. A year later, investigators recorded statements from the victims’ families and confirmed the identities of the two slain men.
Following this, the CBI registered a formal case on February 28, 1997, and filed a chargesheet on February 1, 1999, against five police officers for conspiracy, abduction, and destruction of evidence.
Victims’ counsel Sarabjit Singh Verka criticised the protracted legal battle, pointing to the delay in justice. “Although charges were framed in 1999, the trial was stalled in higher courts from 2001 to 2022 because of baseless petitions filed by the accused,” he said.
“Only 27 witnesses were eventually examined. Some passed away, and others changed their stance, supporting the accused. After 32 years, the court has finally delivered a verdict,” Verka added.
The verdict marks a rare conviction in a string of alleged extra-judicial killings that marred Punjab’s counterinsurgency operations in the 1990s.
