E-Paper
36 yrs on, cops present challan against murder accused ex-Akali MLA Valtoha
Nearly 36 years after he was named as one of the accused in the murder of Patti-based doctor Sudarshan Kumar Trehan, police presented a challan against two-time Akali MLA Virsa Singh Valtoha in a Patti court on Friday.
Nearly 36 years after he was named as one of the accused in the murder of Patti-based doctor Sudarshan Kumar Trehan, police presented a challan against two-time Akali MLA Virsa Singh Valtoha in a Patti court on Friday.
Trehan was murdered in his clinic on September 30, 1983, and a case was registered at Patti, now in the Tarn Taran district.
The challan was presented under Section 302 (murder), 307 (attempt to murder), 452 (house trespass), 34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention) of the Indian Penal Code. The court has fixed the next hearing on March 13.
An investigation by HT and the Punjab Human Rights Organisation exposed the hushing up of Trehan’s murder all these years due to the police-politician nexus that helped Valtoha hide the fact that he was never acquitted.
An FIR in the case was registered against unidentified persons on the day of the murder. A month later, police took on remand one Hardev Singh, who was then lodged in the Nabha jail in other criminal cases.
During interrogation, Hardev confessed that he along with Valtoha and one Baldev Singh were behind Trehan’s murder. On the basis of his confession, Valtoha was named as an accused.
Although Valtoha was arrested from Golden Temple during Operation Bluestar in 1984 and was detained in Jodhpur and Tihar jails, police told the court that he was absconding.
Police, on the basis of false submissions, got Valtoha’s arrest warrants issued and later, the court ordered them to comply with Section 82 of the CrPC to set in motion legal procedure before declaring an absconding accused a proclaimed offender.
Valtoha got a bail in the case in February 1991 but the police never presented a supplementary charge sheet against him. The other two accused in the case were acquitted in November 1990.
Based on a report submitted by the three-member special investigation team led by SP (traffic), Tarn Taran, Jaswant Kaur, Valtoha was summoned twice, but the Akali leader claimed he had been acquitted in the case.
He, however, failed to produce court orders. The police and court also confirmed that no supplementary challan was presented against him.
