The Punjab and Haryana High Court on Monday directed the State of Punjab to form a new SIT to be headed by Additional Director General of Police (ADGP) for probing the alleged murder of Dera Sacha Sauda follower Mohinder Pal Bittu.
The HC was hearing a petition filed by the wife of Bittu, Santosh Kumari, who is seeking a probe by CBI into Bittu’s ‘murder’ or by any other independent agency.
The police had claimed that Bittu – who was booked in the 2015 sacrilege cases and arrested in 2018 – was killed by two inmates, Maninder Singh and Gursewak Singh, both serving life term for murder, on June 22, 2019.
Kumari submitted before the HC that the state police “had arbitrarily and illegally not investigated the conspiracy part of the case in question… under which Bittu was brutally murdered in judicial custody…”.
The petitioner – through her counsel – contended before the HC that Bittu’s name was falsely included in FIRs, including the sacrilege cases, registered at police station Bajakhana and Kotkapura, district Faridkot, and was arrested in view of his alleged confessional statement. The petitioner alleged that Bittu was brutally murdered by jail inmates – Maninder Singh and Gursewak Singh – under a conspiracy of police officers and politicians, among others. The petitioner said that a notebook/diary note/dying declaration was recovered from the clothes of the deceased and from that the petitioner could make out the brutality and torture that her husband was subjected to by the police officers in the jail. No action has been taken till date despite her son sending the diary note to the authorities concerned, the petitioner contended.
The CBI, in its reply, submitted that further investigation in the case could be entrusted to it “keeping in view the sensitivity of the matter in view of allegations against the politicians and higher police officers”.
After hearing the matter, a bench of Justice Raj Mohan Singh held, “Evidently, SIT headed by Kesar Singh, PPS, SP (PBI), Patiala, has not investigated the case so far. SIT headed by Surinderpal Singh Parmar has recused itself from investigating the case as allegations are against high ranking police officers and no one should be made a judge in his own cause or the rule against bias.”
Justice Raj Mohan Singh held, “I deem it appropriate to direct that the composition of the present SIT shall be revisited, thereby putting high ranking police officers not below the rank of the persons against whom allegations have been made in the diary note.”
The HC said, “Even though some of the high ranking police officers are retired, it shall be ensured by the State of Punjab that proper and legal investigation is carried out by the new SIT to be headed by Additional Director General of Police i.e. not less than the rank of Additional Director General of Police and constituent members of the SIT may not be lower than the rank of Senior Superintendent of Police. New SIT will take over the investigation from the SIT headed by Kesar Singh, PPS, SP (PBI), Patiala, and shall carry out further investigation and submit its report to the court concerned at the earliest.”