{Vicky Middukhera murder} HC seeks senior officers’ response on gangster’s fear of fake encounter

Chandigarh Taking note of the nature of allegations of custodial violence and that he could be killed in a fake encounter, the Punjab and Haryana high court has asked governments of Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh administration to respond to the issues that gangster Kaushal Chaudhary, 39, has raised.

Kaushal, whose name has recently cropped up in the broad daylight gruesome murder of Youth Akal Dal (YAD) leader, Vikramjit Middukhera, in Mohali is lodged in Sangrur jail.

He has claimed that agencies are conspiring to kill him on the asking of rival gangster or eliminate him in a fake encounter. To counter this, he has demanded that whenever he is sought to be taken for interrogation in any case, videography be ‘done’ of his leaving the jail premises till he reaches the police station concerned.

The plea also demands that during interrogation, videography be also ‘done’, so that he can ask the court to provide him a copy, if needed, to show that he was tortured during interrogation.

Posting the matter for November 2, the high court bench of justice Amol Rattan Singh directed that if replies are not filed at least one week before the hearing, senior officers of each department in each state, would be summoned to the court. The court also made it clear that the affidavits on these allegations should be of a person not lower in rank than an AIG/SSP.

“They spit on the floor and asks petitioner to lick, if refused, he is forced to do so. Officers urinate on the petitioner after removing clothes and give him merciless beatings. Sharp objects are inserted in the private parts and also given electric shocks inside the jail as well as during when he is taken on a remand in a case,” the plea alleges without naming the agency.

CONVICTED ONCE, FACES 38 CRIMINAL CASES

As per the plea, he is an accused in 38 criminal cases, has been acquitted in four and discharged in one. He is a convict in one case in 2006 and remains an undertrial in other cases, the plea adds.

His counsel, senior advocate Bipan Ghai, had submitted that the petitioner has been falsely implicated in a large number of cases by the investigating agencies. He is roped in as accused on the basis of false confessions, manipulated, of the co-accused during remand and is not based on any tangible investigation. The petitioner has been arrayed as accused only to cover up the inadequacies in the investigation done by investigation agencies, Ghai had submitted, adding that whenever the police are not able to solve a case, his client was named as an accused.

The plea claims that he has been falsely implicated in the recent murders of Middukhera and councillor Sukhmeet Singh in June 2021 in Jalandhar. “The petitioner has full faith in judicial system and ready to face the trial. His family too is being pressurised not to speak against false implication,” the plea says.

Taking note of these allegations, the court directed jail officials as well as policemen that rules and judicial orders with regard to arrest and questioning of the accused be followed in letter and spirit.