CHANDIGARH: Moving on at the usual snail’s pace, the trial of the sensational triple murder case involving Punjab Additional Director-General of Police D.S. Bhullar will easily go into the next century.

The other suspects in the case are two brothers, Agyapal Singh Bath and Ladwinder Singh Bath, Assistant Sub-Inspector Krishan Kumar, who was attached with Bhullar as a gunman, and one Sandeep Ohri.

From friendship to murder
Awaiting Judgement
A follow-up

During the past one and a half years, since September 27, 1997 to be precise, when the Additional Sessions Judge of Patiala, Mr B.C. Rajput, had framed charges and started the trial, the court has examined only 19 out of the 120 witnesses lined up by the prosecution. The trial has just about kicked off, so to say.

It all started with Harnek Singh, hailing from Dulheta village in Jalandhar district, coming to India from the UK and joining Punjab Public School at Nabha in the year 1986. While in school he became friendly with classmate Uday Pratap Singh Bhullar, son of Mr D.S. Bhullar, and came very close to the Bhullar family.

During their visit to England Bhullar and his wife stayed with Harnek’s brother, Paramjit Singh Sahota in London. After completing school in 1990, Harnek returned to England. A year later, Paramjit Singh came to India and met the Bhullar family.

In mid-1991, five persons — Paramjit Singh Sahota, Agyapal Singh Bath, D.S. Bhullar, Gurkiran Singh Dhillon and Sonam Topgayal — met and decided to do business together. Agyapal was a school-time friend of Paramjit and was working in the USA. Gurkiran was an old schoolmate of Harnek, while Topgayal was Gurkiran’s friend.

They decided to start two units simultaneously — one for production and the other for marketing. Paramjit and Bhullar were to run the production unit at Mohali. Gurkiran along with Sonam would be marketing in India, while Harnek was given the UK, and Agyapal the USA, as marketing territory.

Paramjit and Uday Pratap Singh Bhullar set up a factory named B.S. Illusions in October, 1991 with equal shares. Mrs Bhullar, however, held the general power of attorney on behalf of her son. Gurkiran and Topgayal formed a separate unit called Dhigyal Holographers Ltd for marketing the holograms produced by B.S. Illusions in India. The name was later on changed to Alfa Lasertek India (P) Ltd. Another company, Gabor Holographics, was later set up at Delhi in 1994-95, with Harnek and Agyapal as equal partners.

Then, as usually happens between business partners, a progressively widening rift developed between Agyapal, Ladwinder, D.S. Bhullar and Mrs Bhullar, on the one hand, and Paramjit and Harnek on the other. While Paramjit accused Agyapal of gross negligence, Bhullar, Agyapal and Ladwinder suspected Paramjit of embezzling funds running into lakhs.

Sometime in July-August, 1996, says the CBI which probed and is now prosecuting the case, D.S. Bhullar, Agyapal and Ladwinder hatched a conspiracy to eliminate Paramjit and to take over the control of B.S. Illusions and Gabor Holographics. They joined Sandeep Ohri, a friend of Ladwinder and a part-time worker of BSI, and ASI Krishan Kumar attached with Bhullar as a gunman.

On September 12, 1996, Paramjit hired a taxi at R.K. Puram in New Delhi, for coming to Punjab. He reached Mohali in the evening of September 15. Satnam Singh, a cousin of Paramjit and an employee of BSI, also accompanied him from Dhuleta village. Paramjit, Satnam and taxi driver Vikram Singh spent the night of September 15 at house No 1535, Phase X, Mohali.

Agyapal met Paramjit at the house that evening as also the next morning. Paramjit, Satnam and Vikram left the house after the meeting on September 16 and reached the premises of B.S. Illusions. In the afternoon Agyapal took away Satnam from the factory in his car and, after dropping him at house No 2706, Phase VII, Mohali, returned alone to the factory at about 4.30 p.m.

Half an hour later, he and Vikram went to the other house in Phase X and collected Paramjit’s clothes and personal effects on the pretext that Paramjit had asked for them. Vikram was last seen there in the company of Agyapal.

The accused procured petrol costing Rs 200 in two cans from a filling station at Mohali, alleges the CBI. On the night between September 16 and 17, Head Constable Santokh Singh of Khanna Sadar Police Station, along with Constable-Driver Surinder Kumar saw a white Ambassador car on fire near village Gaggar Majra. The number of the car was later found to be DL-3CD-9056. Santokh Singh put out the fire with the help of others and found three charred bodies in the car. One on the front seat and two on the back. The seats, tyres and stepney of the car were all burnt.

On September 24, 1996, the three bodies were identified to be those of Paramjit Singh, Satnam Singh and Vikram Singh by Paramjit’s brother, Harnek. The charred remains were sent to the Khanna Civil Hospital for postmortem. However, the doctors could not give the cause of death. The bodies were later sent to the Government Medical College for their opinion.

The CBI report discloses: "As per the expert opinion, the charred remains found on the front seat of the car were of a male aged about 23 to 40 years; the charred remains found on the left side of the back seat of the car were of a male aged about 23 to 40 years, and the charred remains of the third person found on the right side of the back seat of the car were of a male aged about 18 to 23 years."

The CBI alleges that after the murder Agyapal and D.S. Bhullar went to Delhi on September 23 and visited the office of Gabor Holographics for taking control of the company. On October 3, 1996, Agyapal went to Delhi and visited GHL office again. He is alleged to have told the employees that after the death of Paramjit, he being the senior-most in the company would be its Managing Director and they would have to act according to his orders.

On October 9, D.S. Bhullar, his wife and son, Uday Pratap, along with ASI Krishan Kumar and some other gunmen visited the GHL office "in a great show of force". A day later, new directors Shailender Pandey and Wilfred D’Souza were inducted in the company.

The CBI claims that on November 30, 1996, Agyapal Singh made an extra-judicial confession before one Damandeep Singh Gill, saying that Paramjit and Harnek had not been rendering the accounts of the company and were suspected to have misappropriated funds. Therefore, he along with Ladwinder, Krishan Kumar and Sandeep Ohri planned and killed Paramjit, and also Satnam and Vikram in kothi No 2706, Phase VII, Mohali and their bodies were burnt ahead of Khanna by the side of the G.T. Road in the car of the deceased.

On December 2, 1996, Agyapal allegedly made a disclosure statement and pointed out kothi No 1535, Phase X, Mohali from where he had collected the clothes and belongings of Paramjit Singh Sahota on September 16. He also pointed out the machine room in E-14, Industrial Area, Mohali, where Paramjit Singh Sahota was confined; the computer room, drawing room and bed room of kothi No 2706, Phase VII, Mohali, where Paramjit Singh, Vikram Singh and Satnam Singh were killed; the spot along the G.T. Road near Khanna where the dead bodies were burnt in the car; and the bridge on Bhakra Canal near Mandi Gobindgarh, where the belongings were thrown into the canal.

On November 3, 1996 Sandeep Ohri too made an extra-judicial confession, alleges the CBI, on similar lines as Agyapal before one Lakhwinder Singh.

In an interesting turn of events, however, both Damandeep and Lakhwinder, before whom the extra-judicial confessions were allegedly made by Agyapal and Sandeep Ohri, turned hostile at the trial. That was a major setback for the prosecution.

And then, Bhullar’s son Uday Pratap Singh passed away on August 28, 1998. He was just in his twenties. He had set up the Mohali factory in partnership with Paramjit Singh Sahota, one of the persons done to death.

If the prosecution is to be believed, Bhullar did what he is alleged to have done in order to help his son. Thus God disposes what man proposes.

But only if the prosecution is to be believed. And that will happen, if at all, not before the next century.

A quiet leader from the grassroots

By Harihar Swarup

IF the clean image, honesty and integrity still matter in politics, replacement of Orissa Chief Minister J.B. Patnaik by a much younger Giridhar Gomang, a tribal leader, may help the Congress romp home in the Assembly elections due exactly in a year’s time. There appears to be no earthly reason for removal of a seasoned, mature and firmly entrenched leader like Patnaik, having majority support in the CLP, than the expediency of votes. Doubtlessly, the anti-incumbency factor would have gone against septuagenarian ex-Chief Minister.

Otherwise, there is no comparison between shrewd and politically skilful Patnaik and "simpleton" Gomang whose name is pronounced in Oria as "go-man-go" and often mentioned jocularly in the Central hall of Parliament. Though the 56-year-old Chief Minister has created a record having won the Lok Sabha elections for eight times and served as a junior minister in the governments of Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi and P.V. Narasimha, he lacks articulation and clarity of expression. It is extremely difficult to follow his heavily Oria accented English. Scribes in the Press gallery of Parliament land in a jam whenever he speaks and have to invariably strive hard to understand what the member from Orissa wants to convey. Paradoxically, Gomang began his career as an English teacher in a high school in 1968.

Despite lack of communicative skill, Gomang has something magnetic in his personality. He has become a very popular leader in the Koraput area of Orissa and created a formidable base for himself among the tribals. Such unflinching confidence they have in Gomang that they virtually worship him.

Gomang missed the bus five years back when he was close to becoming the Chief Minister. He was projected as the Congress party’s Chief Minister in 1995 assembly elections and headed the campaign committee too but when the time came Janaki Ballabh Patnaik was considered a better choice. This was not because he headed the PCC and under his headship the Congress has trounced as formidable a rival as Biju Patnaik but because Janaki Babu possessed a far superior political skill and administrative ability than Gomang. This was also his third term in the Chief Ministerial office.

Gomang, who was hopeful of becoming the Chief Minister in 1995, reconciled to his fate, rather felt dejected. His comments were: "If God did not want me to be the Chief Minister, so it be. I know if God wanted me to head the government, no body could have altered that plan." God had willed that Gomang should wait for four years and now the Almighty desired that the tribal leader should get what he was denied in 1995.

Unexpectedly and without convincing reasons, J.B. Patnaik was directed to resign and the two main aspirants — PCC President, Hemanand Biswal and Deputy Chief Minister Basanta Biswal — surfaced on the scene. But God was this time on the side of Gomang. He was in Delhi, having the least idea that he would be drafted to succeed Patnaik but, by that time, Sonia Gandhi had made up her mind that the tribal leader is the man for Orissa. Gomang was flown to Bhubneshwar atmost at the 11th hour to be elected leader of the Congress Legislature Party.

Heavy responsibility rests on Gomang’s shoulders. He has to give a new look to the government, prepare the party for the Assembly elections and, if by any chance, mid-term polls to the Lok Sabha are held, he will have a tough time. As of now, he will have to resign his Lok Sabha seat and seek the Assembly election within six months and before that an MLA has to relinquish his seat to accommodate the new Chief Minister.

Gomang’s biggest asset in the face of coming challenges is the simplicity and non-controversial image; he has scrupulously kept himself away from the rival groups in the state politics and in that respect he is considered a political lightweight. But, at the same time, this is also his strength as will be able to balance the warring factions in the Orissa unit of the Congress. Another advantage is that he is seen as Sonia Gandhi’s choice.

The most daunting challenge, however, is the coming Assembly election. Will the Congress be able to retain Orissa by projecting a full-blooded tribal as the Chief Minister ejecting a far more shrewd and experienced leader? On his part Gomang has promised "I will serve Orissa just the way I have served my Koraput constituency all along." Precisely at this time next year Gomang’s fate will be decided.

75 YEARS AGO

S. Udham Singh arrested

TODAY Sardar Udham Singh, General Secretary and Offtg. President of the Doaba Jat Bhai-Charak Sabha (Social Association), Member of Sri Hargobind Khalsa High School, Hoshiarpur, Member of the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee, late secretary of the Doaba Khalsa High School, General and Executive Committee, Jullundur, has been arrested at his village Jandoosingha in Jullundur district and brought under custody.

He was produced before Mian Abdul Fateh, E.A.C. Magistrate Ist class, with the request to remand for two weeks. The Magistrate consequently remanded the case up to the 6th of March, 1923, under Section 302-120 IPC and Sardar Udham Singh was taken to the judicial lock-up under custody. His house was also searched, but nothing is said to have been recovered from there.