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Dera follower’s murder in jail: HC seeks report from Punjab Police on status of probe
The high court bench of justice Karamjit Singh sought response and also a report on probe so far from Punjab Police by February 6 on the plea from Santosh Kumari, Mohinder Pal Singh Bittu’s wife
The Punjab and Haryana high court has sought a report on status of probe into murder of Mohinder Pal Singh Bittu, a dera Sacha Sauda follower and accused in 2015 sacrilege cases, in Nabha jail in 2019.
The high court bench of justice Karamjit Singh sought response and also a report on probe so far from Punjab Police by February 6 on the plea from Santosh Kumari, Bittu’s wife. The woman petitioner had demanded that the FIR pertaining to the murder of her husband be transferred to Central Bureau of Investigation.
Bittu, who was booked in the 2015 sacrilege cases and arrested three years later, was killed by two inmates Maninder Singh and Gursewak Singh, both serving life terms for murder, on June 22, 2019, with iron rods.
According to the plea, after registration of the FIR a special investigation team was also constituted on HC’s direction in August 2022 but the investigation in the case is not moving ahead.
The petitioner’s wife alleged that he was brutally tortured for giving judicial confession in the sacrilege cases by the police and subsequently murdered under conspiracy in jail when he retracted from his confession. The FIR was registered on June 22, 2019, under IPC sections 302 (murder), 120-B (criminal conspiracy), 34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention) and Section 52-A of the Prison Act at Police Station Sadar Nabha, Patiala.
Referring to the record of the trial court proceedings, her lawyers, senior advocates RS Rai and Chetan Mittal, had stated that the trial court had deprecated the delay by the SIT as is evident from the court orders. “…in this background, there is no chance of getting any justice or fair investigation from Punjab Police and rather from the perusal of a CFSL report (connected with the case) …it is evident that the respondent/Punjab Police is protecting the high officials and the politicians,” the plea says, demanding that the case be handed over to the CBI.
