The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

NEWS AND VIEWS

PUNJAB

HARYANA

JAMMU & KASHMIR

HIMACHAL

REGIONAL BRIEFS

NATION

OPINIONS

MAILBAG

BUSINESS

SPORTS

WORLD

SPECIAL COVERAGE

CHANDIGARH

LUDHIANA

DELHI

M A I N N E W S

Punjab to probe fake killings
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, May 3
Director-general of Punjab police NPS Aulakh today ordered an enquiry on the basis of reports published in various newspapers regarding fake killings by Punjab police during the period of militancy in the state.

JP Birdi, additional director-general of police, will head the fact-finding team for conducting a thorough enquiry into the allegations.

A spokesperson of the police said the Punjab government had viewed the news reports with concern and considering the gravity of the issues involved, the enquiry has been initiated.

It may be mentioned here that certain specific instances were quoted in these reports in which the police had reportedly shown that it killed some terrorists in encounters earlier. However, these people were still alive. It has further been mentioned in these news reports that innocent persons were killed in place of such terrorists.

THE TRIBUNE SPECIALS

50 YEARS OF INDEPENDENCE

TERCENTENARY CELEBRATIONS

Fake encounter: More cops under CID lens

Ahmedabad, May 3
With the Gujarat government facing the heat in the fake encounter case, the state CID has detained a few middle and lower level policemen who were part of the operations led by the three arrested senior IPS officers.

A case may be registered against these policemen and they are likely to be arrested once the CID is sure of their role in the crime, police sources said today.

In an apparent bid to get to the bottom of the case, the CID is interrogating certain policemen of the ranks of inspector, sub-inspector and constable who were members of the team that tracked Sohrabuddin Sheikh all the way from Hyderabad till the scene of the encounter, near here, in November 2005.

“These policemen are being interrogated as they were part of the team that conducted the entire operation. The policemen knew specifically by which bus he, his wife Kausar Bi and Tulsiram Prajapati (a friend of theirs) were travelling in and also the seat numbers,” the sources said.

The individual role of these policemen is being scrutinised carefully so that there are no loopholes in the investigation, they added.

The CID team probing the fake encounter episode is also reported to have videotaped the “confessions” of some of the policemen. — PTI