Punjab: Former DIG, 4 others held guilty of driving five of family to suicide

2004 AMRITSAR INCIDENT: A serving DSP also convicted of destruction of evidence; quantum of sentence to be announced tomorrow; trial in case began in March 2016 on the high court’s directions

Former Punjab Police deputy inspector general (DIG) Kultar Singh and four others were convicted on Monday by an Amritsar court of abetting the suicide of five members of a family in 2004.

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The five were also held guilty of criminal intimidation and extortion.

Besides, the court held guilty Hardev Singh, a serving deputy superintendent of police (DSP), of destruction of evidence. The quantum of sentence will be announced on Wednesday.

Hardeep Singh, a resident of Chowk Karori locality in Amritsar city, his wife Romi, mother Jaswant Kaur, and children Simran and Ismeet, ended their lives by consuming poison on October 31, 2004.

The family left a suicide note scribbled on a wall of their house besides posting a letter to their acquaintance, accusing four of their relatives, including Hardeep’s sister, and Kultar Singh, who was then serving as Amritsar senior superintendent of police (SSP), of forcing them to take the extreme step.

The other convicts are Hardeep’s sister Parminder Kaur, her husband Palwinder Pal Singh, Hardeep’s uncle Mohinder Singh and his daughter-in-law Subreen Kaur. It was alleged that Hardeep was allegedly being blackmailed by his relatives and Kultar Singh for his having allegedly committed a crime.

Hardev Singh, who was then in-charge of the police station where the first information report (FIR) in the incident was registered, was accused of tampering with evidence to protect the then SSP.

While charges under Sections 306 (abetment to suicide), 388 (extortion by threat of accusation of an offence) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code were framed against all six in the court, Kultar and Hardev were also charged with Section 120-B (criminal conspiracy) and Section 201(destruction of evidence) of the Indian Penal Code.

In 2009, Punjab Human Rights Organisation (PHRO) activist Sarabjit Singh Verka brought the matter before the court, seeking justice for the victims as the “police were not probing the case seriously despite having instituted three inquiries”.

On the basis of the application moved by Verka, Kultar and Hardev were again summoned in January 2016 and a chargesheet was filed against the accused.

The trial in the case began in March 2016 on the directions of the Punjab and Haryana High Court.