Delhi court issues perjury notice to witness who claimed he had seen ‘missing’ Punjab man in Nepal in 1994

Satya Prakash

New Delhi, December 21

Acting on a plea filed by the CBI, a Delhi court on Thursday issued a perjury notice to a witness who claimed to have seen in Nepal one of the three men who went missing from Punjab in March 1994, eight months after their mysterious disappearance.

Former Punjab Director General of Police SS Saini and three others are facing prosecution in the almost 30-year-old case for alleged abduction of automobile businessman Vinod Kumar, his brother-in-law Ashok Kumar and their driver Mukhtiyar Singh.

While Vinod and Mukhtiyar were picked up by the police from the parking lot of the Punjab and Haryana High Court on March 15, 1994, Ashok was allegedly abducted from Ludhiana the same day.

“An application under Section 340 CrPC (perjury) has been filed yesterday on behalf of CBI. A copy of the same is supplied to the Learned Counsel for Accused no. 1. On filing another copy, same be sent along with notice to the witness concerned to file his reply, if any, on January 6, 2024,” Special Judge Naresh Kumar Laka ordered.

In his testimony, defence witness Varinder Pramod on September 18, 2023 told the CBI Special Court herethat he saw victim Vinod Walia at Kathmandu, Nepal on November 19, 1994, and that he informed about it to two newspapers for which he was working. He also claimed that a story regarding the incident of seeing Vinod Walia was published in both the newspapers within 10 days at Ludhiana.

However, on being summoned by the Special Court, the newspapers said no such news story was published.

“Prosecution is of the opinion that D1W1 Sh. Varinder Pramod has deliberately given false evidence before this Ld. Court and as such, an enquiry needs to be initiated u/s 340 Cr.PC against him in the interest of the justice,” the CBI submitted in its application seeking initiation of perjury proceedings against the defence witness.

The Special Court is scheduled to examine two other witnesses on December 22.