Punjab: Custodial death: Court to resume hearing against five Bathinda cops on July 15

ByVishal Joshi, Bathinda
Published on: Jul 06, 2025 08:50 am IST

The Bathinda district court had ordered the accused cops to stand trial for culpable homicide, causing disappearance of evidence and other offences

A Bathinda court will resume hearing the case of alleged culpable homicide against five police personnel on July 15 after the Punjab and Haryana high court dismissed their petition for a stay on the proceeding on July 1.

Civil judge (junior division), Rasveen Kaur, will conduct the hearing at the next session. (HT File)
Civil judge (junior division), Rasveen Kaur, will conduct the hearing at the next session. (HT File)

Civil judge (junior division), Rasveen Kaur, will conduct the hearing at the next session.

A fact-finding report by then Bathinda judicial magistrate first class (JMIC) Kuldeep Singh filed on February 18 this year had indicted inspector Navpreet Singh, the then head of Bathinda CIA-1, head constable Rajwinder Singh and three constables— Gaganpreet Singh, Harjit Singh and Jaswinder Singh —had allegedly subjected a man to “custodial death”.

The district court had ordered the accused cops to stand trial for culpable homicide, causing disappearance of evidence and other offences.

It is learnt that inspector Navpreet, who along with four other subordinates of his in the CIA-1 did not appear before the court on six consecutive hearings, is now posted as station house officer (SHO) in Jaito, Faridkot.

Sources said that he was transferred from Bathinda after the matter was stayed by the HC.

Bathinda senior superintendent of police (SSP) Amneet Kondal feigned ignorance on Saturday, where the other accused cops were posted now.

“Navpreet is now posted in the Faridkot district. Some were sent to the police lines, but I am unaware about the others,” said the SSP.

The accused had filed a petition in the HC on March 17, seeking quashing of criminal proceedings initiated by a Bathinda district court. The HC had ordered an interim stay on the district court’s proceedings which was finally dismissed this week.

Since February 18, the district court summoned the accused five cops twice and served arrest warrants on four other occasions but the police authorities could not produce them before the court even once.

Non-bailable warrants were issued by the court twice on March 10 and 20, but they did not turn up before the court.

During a hearing on March 10, the court took a strong note and stated that “bailable warrants against the accused persons were received back unexecuted, with the report stating that they have gone on long leave.”

On the next hearing on March 20, the district court in its order had termed the police action as a “sorry state of affairs” while observing that “non-bailable warrants against the serving police officials were received back unexecuted with the report that despite raids conducted at their houses, they could not be traced.”

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