Twelve years after five members of a family ended their life in Amritsar, a local court has framed charges of abetment to suicide, criminal intimidation and extortion against retired deputy inspector general of police (DIG) Kultar Singh, sitting Zira deputy superintendent of police Hardev Singh and four other accused here on Friday.
The trial in the case began in March this year on the directions of the Punjab and Haryana high court. Kultar Singh and Hardev Singh have appeared in the court during the hearings.
The case dates back to October 31, 2004, when Hardeep Singh, a resident of Chowk Karori locality in the city, along with wife Romi, mother Jaswant Kaur, and children Simran and Ismeet, committed suicide by consuming poison.
The family left a suicide note, scribbled on a wall in a room in their house and also sent to their friends by post, accusing their four kin and Kultar Singh, the then Amritsar senior superintendent of police (SSP), of forcing them to take the extreme step.
The other accused in the case are Hardeep Singh’s sister Parminder Kaur, her husband Palwinder Pal Singh, Hardeep Singh’s uncle Mohinder Singh and his daughter-in-law Subren Kaur.
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 (IPC) have been framed against all the six accused in the court of additional sessions judge Monica Goyal, Kultar Singh and Hardev Singh have also been charged with criminal conspiracy (Section 120-B) and destruction of evidence (Section 201).
{{/usCountry}}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 (IPC) have been framed against all the six accused in the court of additional sessions judge Monica Goyal, Kultar Singh and Hardev Singh have also been charged with criminal conspiracy (Section 120-B) and destruction of evidence (Section 201).
{{/usCountry}}Charges have also been framed under Sections 466 (forgery of public record) and 471 (using as genuine a forged document) against Hardev Singh, the then Kotwali police station in-charge, under whose jurisdiction the locality fell.
The next date of hearing in the case has been fixed on June 1.