Three get life term for murder of Ambala cop in 2019

Seven, including gangster Bhupi Rana, acquitted; cop was deployed in the security of an eyewitness in a murder case when he was shot dead

A local court has awarded life imprisonment to three accused and acquitted seven others, including gangster Bhupinder Singh, alias Bhupi Rana, for the murder of a Ambala police personnel in 2019.

The Ambala court also imposed a fine of ₹1 lakh each on the convicts and additional six months of jail time if the fine is not paid. (Shutterstock)

An exempted assistant sub-inspector (EASI), Suresh Kumar, was deployed in the security of an eyewitness in a 2018 murder case when the accused shot him dead.

The convicts are Shubham, alias Ritik, a resident of Vishwakarma Nagar, Mahesh Nagar, Ambala; and Prince and Rahul Kumar, both residents of Dayal Bagh, Mahesh Nagar.

Besides Rana, those acquitted are his purported gang members Kuldeep, Deepak, Sagar, Pardeep, Sahil and Gursewak (then a minor). Rahul originally belongs to Kanpur in Uttar Pradesh.

In its judgment on March 4, the court of additional sessions judge Sundeep Singh also imposed a fine of ₹1 lakh each on the convicts and additional six months of jail time if the fine is not paid.

As per the judgment order made available on Monday, Prince and Shubham were sentenced under Sections 302 (murder) written with 120B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), and Section 25 of the Arms Act, and Rahul only under the IPC sections.

According to case files, EASI Suresh, who hailed from Yamunanagar, was murdered by three bike-borne men in Ambala’s Naraingarh on June 2, 2019.

An FIR was initially lodged under Sections 34 and 302 of the IPC and the Arms Act against unidentified men on the complaint of the cop’s eldest brother, Mamchand. Police later arrested 10 men, including Bhupi Rana, for their involvement in the murder.

However, police probe later found that the assailants had in fact come to murder Rambir, an eyewitness in the murder of a JBT teacher, Session Kumar Judge, alias Master, of Badagaon village. The teacher was murdered on July 9, 2018, over an alleged enmity with his wife, Rekha, the village sarpanch.

The shooters had come to the service station of Rambir, also from Badagaon village, on the pretext of bike repair, and as they opened fire, they shot dead the cop deployed in his security instead.

In her complaint after her husband’s murder, Rekha had said that Master was on his way to school in Gannouli village and later to Panchkula in connection with a 2017 case, when some upper caste men used casteist slurs against two villagers and assaulted Master following an argument over some construction work in the village, leading to his murder. A case under the SC/ST Act was registered in this regard.

High drama was witnessed after the teacher’s murder, as the family blocked a major road alleging inaction by the then SHO, Suresh Kumar, on several complaints by Master about threat to his life. The then MLA, Nayab Singh Saini, who is now the Kurukshetra MP, had also faced the family’s ire. The murder case is sub-judice before a lower court.

Acquitted men facing more trials

Gangster Bhupinder and his gang member Sahil, who were let off in the cop’s murder case, are currently lodged in Karnal and Ambala jails, respectively.

“Bhupinder is facing trial in two other murder cases, while Sahil is accused of firing at rival gangster Shamsher Singh, alias Monu Rana, at the Jagadhri court complex in 2017, that left him permanently disabled. Kuldeep is a co-accused in the teacher’s murder and had claimed responsibility for it on social media,” said sources.

Superintendent of police Jashandeep Singh Randhawa said the court order was being studied and police were exploring possibilities of challenging the acquittals before the Punjab and Haryana high court.