6 ‘aides’ of custodial death victim held

Balwant Garg

Tribune News Service

Faridkot, June 12

Three week after the mysterious death of a 22-year-old youth in police custody, the police have arrested six persons with criminal background who were believed to be close associates of the deceased.

After scrutinising the call details of the deceased and arresting his aides, the police are hopeful of solving many cases.

Earlier, Jaspal Singh had allegedly committed suicide in a lockup of the Crime Investigation Wing of the Faridkot police on night of May 18.

Among those arrested Ranbir Singh Nihang alias Sumit Munjal alias Pali of Jind in Haryana was the main associate of Jaspal. He had allegedly hatched a conspiracy to ‘eliminate’ Jaspal, believing he was creating some misunderstanding between him and his newlywed wife.

Posing as Paramjit Singh, Ranbir made a complaint to the police on May 18, alleging that Jaspal and his some associates, armed with firearms, were staying in a gurdwara at Ratti Rori village in Faridkot and they had a plan to disturb the electioneering process in the district, said Raj Bachan Singh Sandhu, SSP, Faridkot. The police had rounded up Jaspal Singh and he allegedly committed suicide in the lockup.

The police investigation found that Ranbir Singh was involved in many criminal activities. He had become a Nihang to conceal his identity and save his life after he had allegedly set a man on fire at his village in Jind in 2010.

The victim in this case had survived. Instead of a making a complaint to the police, the person had vowed to take revenge from Ranbir. Fearing act of vengeance by that person, Munjal deserted his village in Jind and shifted to Rupowali, Dera Baba Nanak, in Gurdaspur and became a baptised Sikh.

In April 2017, a criminal case for causing grievous hurt was registered against him in Moga. Another case under the Arms Act was registered against him at Baghapurana the same month after the police had recovered many firearms from him. In September 2018, he was again arrested by the Moga police in a cheating and forgery case.

The police have arrested Roshan Singh of Wara Bhai Ka in Ferozepur. He is also involved in many crimes. These include theft, snatching and murder case against him at the Nahianwala police station in Bathinda, robbery and attempt to murder case at Baghapurana and another case in Faridkot.

The police claimed that the interrogation of Roshan Singh revealed that on April 19, 2019, Jaspal Singh and Roshan Singh had looted a person in Ludhiana and snatched his bike. The accused dumped the motorcycle in a canal, which was recovered by the police.

The police investigation revealed that Roshan Singh, Ranbir Singh and Nishan Singh, three of the arrested persons, had brought various illegal weapons from Madhya Pradesh and sold 10 of these weapons to various persons with the help of conduit Rajwinder Singh, another arrested person in the case. The police have already recovered seven of these illegal pistols.