Punjab: ‘Won’t tolerate inaction’ says Court on failure to arrest 5 cops in Bathinda ‘custodial’ death

Judicial magistrate first class Kuldeep Singh on Thursday termed the police action as a “sorry state of affairs” while observing that the 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

A district court has taken a strong note of the Bathinda police’s failure in executing warrants regarding arrest of five cops accused of culpable homicide and disappearance of evidence in connection with a custodial death case.

The cops were first asked to appear before the court on February 27 and when they failed to do so, the court issued bailable warrants against the five. (HT photo for representation)

Judicial magistrate first class (JMIC) Kuldeep Singh on Thursday 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.”

“It is made clear that arrest warrants must be executed at any cost, failing which the higher police officer concerned will be held responsible,” the magistrate stated. The order’s copy was released on Friday evening. The court will hear the case on April 7. “The Bathinda SSP is directed to execute the non-bailable warrants with his personal indulgence. No reason for non-compliance would be entertained on the next date of hearing and the inaction would be viewed seriously,” it stated.

A judicial probe by the JMIC had indicted five cops of the crime investigating agency (CIA)-1 — Navpreet Singh, head constable Rajwinder Singh, constables Gaganpreet Singh, Harjit Singh and Jaswinder Singh — for allegedly subjecting one Bhinder Singh of Lakhi Jungle village to ‘waterboarding’, a type of severe torture, to death in custody on October 17 last year.

The judicial findings relied upon the digital and forensic evidence, documents and a statement of a doctor to rubbish the police theory that Bhinder died due to drowning at a lake of the defunct Guru Nanak Dev Thermal Power Plant in the city area.

The cops were first asked to appear before the court on February 27 and when they failed to do so, the court issued bailable warrants against the five. On the next hearing, bailable warrants were issued and the accused failed to appear before the court on March 10.

The district court issued non-bailable warrants on March 10 with a direction to the Bathinda police to produce them on March 20.