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1992 fake encounter: Court’s terms police version imaginary, improbable while awarding life-term to 3 Punjab cops
The special CBI court of RK Gupta observed that it was highly suspicious that 250 rounds had been fired at the spot yet no cop was injured and the police vehicle too was spotless while the three victims had sustained fatal injuries on their head.
The highly “imaginary and improbable” description of the sequence of events was what proved to be the undoing of the three Punjab Police cops who were awarded life imprisonment for the 1992 fake encounter of three youths.
The trio, Harjit Singh, Jaspinder Singh and Lakhwinder Singh, all in their 20s, were killed in an encounter in Amritsar on May 12, 1992.
The special CBI court of RK Gupta observed that it was highly suspicious that 250 rounds had been fired at the spot yet no cop was injured and the police vehicle too was spotless while the three victims had sustained fatal injuries on their head.
“The unfortunate part is that in the incident that took place on the intervening night of May 11/12, 1992, only those persons (Harjit and Lakhwinder) and one unknown person (Jaspinder), were killed despite 250 rounds being exchanged. None from the police party got the slightest injury and neither were their vehicles damaged. The factors when considered at the legal touchstone, only render the story projected by the police, doubtful and suspicious, and also imaginary and improbable.”
During the course of trial, it came to the fore that Harjit Singh and Lakhwinder Singh were nabbed a few days before their staged encounter, following an exchange of 70 rounds.
Strangely in that incident, neither the duo of Harjit and Lakhwinder, nor the police party consisting of then SHO Dharma Singh Lopoke was injured.
Despite that, on May 11, 1992, at 10.45pm, the police party consisting of 24 persons again opted to take them outside, i.e, into Bhuller village in Amritsar for recovery, allegedly on the basis of their disclosure statements.
The order read, “The fact also remains that neither SI Dharma Singh Lopoke nor the other police officer, made any effort to trace or locate the arms and ammunition allegedly concealed by Harjit and Lakhwinder, at the disclosed place in the area of Bhuller village.
Both victims suffered similar injuries: Autopsy
The post-mortem reports of both Harjit and Lakhwinder corroborated the suspicion of the court that it was a staged encounter. The then head of the forensic science medicine department of Government Medical College, Amritsar, Dr Jagdish Gargi, in the report, stated that there was an entry wound near Harjit’s left ear and exit wound near his right ear. Lakhwinder Singh’s body also bore similar injury marks. The judge observed that it was suspicious, and not mere coincidence, that both the victims had similar injuries and that too at the same place.
Relatives turn hostile, govt employee stands by statement
The case record shows that witnesses, even Lakhwinder’s brother Dilbagh Singh, retracted from the statement which led to delay in trial and hampered the case. However, the statement of paramilitary personnel helped the court unravel the truth behind the staged encounter.
The statement of prosecution witness number 15, SC Bhardwaj, then Commander of the F Company of the 7th Battalion CRPF, who was deployed at Lopoke police station in Amritsar, deposed that no incident of cross-firing took place in the area on the said day. Other CRPF personnel, Mukh Lal and Narinder Partap, also submitted a similar statement.
