Punjab news: Parents move HC for CBI probe in ‘false encounter’

Alleging that their 22-year-old son was gunned down in a fake encounter after being falsely implicated in a kidnapping case, a couple from Punjab has moved the Punjab and Haryana High Court seeking a time-bound CBI probe under the court's supervision. The petition is scheduled to come up for hearing tomorrow.

The petitioners, Baljit Kaur and Lakhwinder Singh, approached the court through counsel Navkiran Singh contending that their son Jaspreet Singh, a student who had been living in Canada since October 2022 and was recently married, had returned to India only days before he was killed in a police encounter on March 13.

According to the plea, Jaspreet was accused of kidnapping a seven-year-old child of a distant relative, leading to registration of an FIR. It was claimed that a police party followed a white vehicle believed to be carrying the kidnapped child. Upon being signalled to stop, the vehicle allegedly sped away, leading to a chase and an encounter in which Jaspreet Singh was shot and two police personnel were injured.

Navkiran Singh stated on the petitioners’ behalf that the post-mortem report dated March 14 revealed seven bullet injuries on Jaspreet’s body, including three with “tattooing” – a sign of close-range firing. One of the injuries, bearing tattooing, was located on the forehead, indicating the youth was shot at point-blank range.

The plea further alleges that instead of being subjected to accountability, the police officials involved were lauded by their superiors and reportedly rewarded with promotions and monetary incentives, as per a news report. The petitioners submitted that they have no faith in a police-led inquiry, especially when the very force involved in the alleged staged encounter was in charge of the investigation.