DIG Anand’s death: 34 yrs on, kin walk free

Saurabh Malik

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, March 23

Chandigarh’s oldest culpable homicide case has come to an end. Nearly 34 years after Deputy Inspector General of Police Joginder Singh Anand “drowned” in Sukhna Lake, the torment of the long-protracted trial the family faced ended today with the Punjab and Haryana High Court honourably acquitting his wife Indu Anand. Their son Sumanjit Singh ‘Nikki’ and nephew Sandeep Singh ‘Sandy’, too, stand acquitted.

The order was pronounced in the open court by Justice AB Chaudhari after their counsel Sartej Singh Narula demolished brick by brick the case built up by the CBI in July 1983. Justice Chaudhari observed that it was a case where gross injustice had been done to the family by the CBI, which failed to investigate the case properly. Anand was related to Union Minister Maneka Gandhi.

Few thrillers end as dramatically as this. However, the CBI case has left behind the lurking question of how to make up for the anguish the family meaninglessly faced for more than three decades. Sumanjit Singh was just 17 and Sandeep Singh 18 at the time of the incident. They virtually grew up with the hammer of justice hanging on their head.

The case

It all happened during the night intervening July 12 and 13, 1983. Just 47, Joginder Singh Anand, Indu Anand, Sumanjit and Sandeep returned home in Sector 3 after attending a “drink party” in a Sector 10 house at about 11 pm.

Darshan Lal, whose testimony primarily laid the foundation for the CBI to build its case, was working as a domestic help. In his statement before a Delhi magistrate on September 1, 1983, Darshan Lal said Indu went upstairs to call DIG Anand and the children for dinner. In a quarrel that ensued, the couple shouted at each other.

Darshan Lal claimed Indu was in great anger. She left the house in a car at about 11.15 pm, only to return after about 20 minutes. She met DIG Anand while climbing up the stairs and shouted at him before he went out of the house. Sumanjit and Sandeep followed him and brought him back.

He was taken inside the house, but Indu caught hold of his neck and pressed it hard while shouting “kill-kill”. Sensing something serious had happened after he fell down on the carpet, all got perplexed. She suggested Darshan Lal to render help in throwing the body in the lake. It was placed in the boot after Sumanjit brought the car.

At about 7.30 am the next day, two police officials discovered the body in the lake. Initially, the police claimed the DIG had committed suicide, but the matter was referred to the CBI after doubts were raised.

The CBI registered a case on July 23, 1983, and the prosecution alleged Indu had caught hold of the DIG’s throat before he collapsed. Believing him to be dead, he was thrown in the lake where he died due to drowning. The CBI had also claimed that Indu had overheard Anand complimenting a woman on the phone, resulting in the quarrel.

Claiming to have been implicated, the accused had asked for a trial. However, the then District and Sessions Judge, Amar Dutt, who later became a Punjab and Haryana High Court Judge, on March 11, 1996, had held the three guilty of culpable homicide not amounting to murder under Section 304 (Part II) of the IPC. Darshan Lal was tendered pardon by a UT Chief Judicial Magistrate.

The defence

Indu’s story differed from the CBI’s reconstruction of the events. Indu claimed she had left the house immediately after the quarrel and was not present at the time when the CBI claimed she was battling Anand physically.

Appearing on their behalf, counsel Sartej Singh Narula submitted reliance could not be placed as approver Darshan Lal was not an independent witness. He was interrogated and kept in custody by the CBI for about 20 days before his arrest on August 19, 1983.

Narula added that the cause of the death was not forthcoming. The CBI alleged death due to drowning. However, there was no evidence that the PGI had the organs for examination, or the CBI brought these.

The CBI got his confessional statement recorded by a Delhi magistrate, and not a Chandigarh court, to keep him under pressure. The HC order today makes it clear that the dead officer’s wife and teenage son never conspired to eliminate him.