Eight accused walk free as police case falls flat in court
Defence claimed the police planned the gangster’s killing
KAPURTHALA:A district and session court of Kapurthala on Tuesday acquitted all eight accused in the murder case of Sukhbir Singh Kahlwan alias Sukha Kahlwan.
The court of additional session judge Muneesh Arora in his judgment acquitted the accused after police failed to prove the claims. The defence lawyer claimed it was a case of fake police encounter planned by CIA inspector Inderjit Singh, who was arrested by the special task force (STF) of Punjab Police on June 2017.
Those acquitted in the case have been identified as Gurjeet Singh alias Baba, Ranjeet Singh Ghuggi, Pavitar Singh, Karamjit Singh alias Saab, Gurpreet Singh Sekhon, Ramandeep Singh alias Premi, Kulpreet Singh alias Neeta Deyol and Tirath Dhilwan.
In this case, two main accused
The eyewitness, Gurpreet Singh, also failed to establish the role of the accused as the police claimed attackers had come in two cars without number plates and had their faces covered. DARSHAN SINGH DAYAL , defence lawyer
including gangster Punjab’s most-wanted Vicky Gounder and Prema Lahoria were killed in an encounter just across the interstate border in Rajasthan in January last year while two accused including Sandeep Singh Pahalwan and Jaipal Singh were declared proclaimed offenders on November 14, 2017.
The court found no solid evidence against the accused. The forensic science laboratory (FSL) report of the bullets has no definitive proof as the police failed to produce weapons used in the crime, said defence lawyer Darshan Singh Dayal and assistant lawyer Shelly Sharma.
Dayal said during the cross-examination that police had even failed to produce all weapons used in the crime.
“Eyewitness in the case Gurpreet Singh also failed to establish the role of accused as police claimed attackers had come in two cars without number plates and had covered their faces. We argued it was a fake encounter planned by the arrested inspector Inderjit,” Dayal said. “Of two cars, one Scorpio car was later recovered from the inspector Inderjit while Rana Partap, who was with Kahlwan in police’s car at the time of his murder, told the court that Kahlwan feared that inspector Inderjit will murder him,” the lawyer said.
Earlier on November 14, 2017, a court of additional session judge Jatinder Walia had framed the charges under Sections 302 (murder), 353 (criminal force to deter public servant from discharge of his duty), 379 (theft) 148 (rioting, armed with deadly weapon), 186 (obstructing public servant in discharge of public functions), 120B (criminal conspiracy) of the IPC and the Arms Act against the seven accused. Later, police arrested eighth accused Tirath Dhilwan last year.however, police theory failed to establish their link in murder during the cross-examination. Sukha Kahlwan was gunned down by at least 14 assailants who even filmed the act and danced around the body in front of the policemen at Phagwara on January 22, 2015.