Triple Suicide Case: Punjab and Haryana High Court may hear former Nurmahal SHO’s petition today
Ashok Kaura
Phagwara, August 9
The Punjab and Haryana High Court will hear on Thursday a petition filed by former Nurmahal SHO Shiv Dev Singh Kahlon. It is listed before a bench of Justice Aupinder Singh Grewal.
Kahlon had submitted in the court that the continuation of the proceedings was a misuse of the process of law because cancellation reports were submitted before the trial court five times but it was not accepted and the matter was sent back for re-investigation in 2016. Thereafter, the matter has been pending with the investigating agency.
It may be mentioned that the case pertains to 30-year-old Sukhdev, his six-month pregnant wife Bindar along with their six-month-old daughter Kusum who had jumped before a running train at Nurmahal on June 8, 2007, after the then Nurmahal SHO Shivdev Singh Kahlon allegedly told Sukhdev that they would torture his family just as they did him for not helping the police to trace his cousin involved in an abduction case. Sukhdev was kept in illegal custody for three days and subjected to severe torture, it was alleged.
The then Phillaur SDM Pritam Singh had recommended the registration of an FIR after conducting a magisterial report.
The family of the victim accused the investigators of not doing enough to nail former Nurmahal SHO Shivdev Singh and urged the state government to constitute a special investigating team, headed by an IG rank officer, but to no avail.
Kahlon was booked under various sections of the IPC, Prevention of Corruption Act, and SC/ST Atrocities (Prevention) Act based on the magisterial inquiry that indicted him for “illegal confinement, torture and corruption which drove the family to take the extreme step”.
He was arrested on July 1, 2007, but was released on bail due to the failure of Jalandhar police to submit a challan in court. The role of the police has been suspected since the beginning.
