Pardon proposal to four Chandigarh cops under HC scanner

The police officers were convicted of murder of Mukhtiar Singh by a CBI court on March 31, 2015, and sentenced to life imprisonment

The Punjab and Haryana high court on Monday asked Punjab government and ministry of home affairs (MHA) to apprise it of reported proposal of pardon to four cops convicted for murder of a cop, Mukhtiar Singh, in a false encounter with “militants” in 1992.

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The high court bench of justice Sanjay Kumar asked counsels of state as well as the state to apprise court on November 20 on the issues raised in a petition by victim’s father Harbhajan Singh of Gurdaspur district, who has also demanded ₹2 crore compensation.

The Jalandhar resident has challenged the process for granting pardon to three police officers — inspector Amrik Singh, sub-inspector Ajit Singh and assistant sub-inspector Harbhajan Singh (all retired) — who were convicted of murder of Mukhtiar Singh by a CBI court on March 31, 2015, and sentenced to life imprisonment.

The court was told by petitioner’s counsel, HC Arora that the applications of the three police officials were being processed for granting pardon to them. In 2004 the apex court had stated that governor cannot consider and decide any proposal for pardon of a convict without examining impact of such pardon on the family of the victim and society at large, and its impact as a precedent for future, the court was told.

“Such pardon sets up dangerous precedent for future, and it emboldens the police officers to conduct such extra-judicial killings,” the court was told. The petitioner, who is 75-year-old, had lost the lone bread-winner of his family and required to be compensated, the court was told, seeking ₹2 crore in compensation.