11 ex-cops among 13 get life term for killing jail inmate

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, July 8

The court of Additional Session Judge in Amritsar today sentenced 13 people, including 11 former policemen, to life imprisonment in a 2014 kidnapping and murder case of a jail inmate.

They include Narang Singh, Gulshanbir Singh, Lakwhinder Singh, Gurpreet Singh, Jagjit Singh, Amandeep Singh, Sawinder Singh, Makhtool Singh, Randhir Singh and Angrej Singh. The two others are Deep Raj Singh and Jagtar Singh.

Heavy police force was present on the court premises. Family members of some of the convicts expressed dissatisfaction over the conviction. They said they would approach the higher court for justice.

While talking to mediapersons, Narang Singh alleged that they were made scapegoat by senior police officers. He claimed that the family of the deceased had created pressure by holding demonstrations. He said he would approach the Punjab and Haryana High Court against his conviction.

Eleven former policemen along with two others were convicted for kidnapping and murdering jail inmate Bikramjit Singh, who was serving life imprisonment in a murder case.

Bikramjit was under treatment at Guru Nanak Dev Hospital when he was abducted by a police team on May 2014, which later tortured him to death at a tractor agency in Batala, it was claimed.

ASI Gulshanbir Singh was heading the party that kidnapped Bikramjit.

Following Bikramjit’s abduction, the police had registered a case against him on May 6, 2014, while alleging that he had escaped from police custody from the hospital premises. Later, a complaint was filed by his family members who alleged that he was kidnapped by a police team on May 7.