A local court today awarded life imprisonment to eight Punjab Police personnel for killing a fireman deployed at an ammunition depot in Bathinda Cantt in a fake encounter 21 years ago.
Additional Sessions judge MPS Pahwa held the policemen guilty of killing 30-year-old Paramjit Singh.
Of the eleven accused in the case, eight were sent to jail, while two policemen died during the course of hearing, one is a proclaimed offender.
A resident of Guru Gobind Singh Nagar, Paramjit was taken away by the police from outside his father's flour mill near Bibiwala Chowk on July 17, 1992.
The police claimed that Paramjit was a terrorist who had escaped during an encounter three months ago in which his aide was killed. Paramjit was also accused of firing at the police with his AK-47 rifle.
"The cops didn't pay heed to Paramjit's request, who even showed his Army identity card," said the complainant's counsel, Gurjeet Sidhu.
Paramjit's family members were given an assurance that he would be released after a house search. The police, however, didn't conduct any search and instead took Paramjit to a spot near Balluana village at 9.30 PM on July 17 to locate his hidden AK-47, said Sidhu.
The police claimed it came under heavy fire by a group of terrorists at the site and Paramjit managed to escape taking the cover of darkness.
Paramjit, who went missing since then, was declared as dead subsequently.
The family said it made numerous representations to the then Bathinda SSP but to no avail. The family moved the Punjab and Haryana High Court in 1994, accusing the police of killing Paramjit in a fake encounter.
In 1996, the high court marked a judicial inquiry to District Sessions judge, Bathinda.
The court submitted its report and found the police version doubtful. In 1999, 11 cops were booked for murder under Section 302 of the IPC.
