Chandigarh, August 28: By hook or by crook – this could be the new motto of the Punjab Police. After all, they will go to any extent to crack a case in a jiffy. The policemen have now landed in soup for arresting a man for murdering his wife – who is, in fact, alive! To prove their case, the policemen posted in Moga got a woman’s mutilated body, a hammer ‘ used in the crime’ and accused Chamkaur Singh’s ‘ confessional statement’. His wife, Charanjit Kaur, and father Jora Singh knocked on the doors of the Punjab and Haryana High Court in Chandigarh, demanding action against the errant police officers.
On Thursday, Justice L. N. Mittal directed the police officers to appear in
court in person after a fortnight, the next date of hearing. The court also issued notices to the government and sought its reply.
Singh’s wife and father – who live in the Jalalabad village of Moga district – reached Chandigarh on Thursday and told the court that it all started after the couple had a minor altercation.
An angry Charanjit went to the Golden Temple in Amritsar.
When her father got to know of the fight, he approached Dharamkot deputy superintendent of police ( DSP) Gurdarshan Singh and station house officer ( SHO) of Dharmkot police station Bhupinder Kaur.
He then allegedly connived with the two policemen to teach his son- in- law a lesson.
Their counsel, G. S. Kaura, said his clients wanted the Central Bureau of Investigation ( CBI) to investigate the matter. After their plea, the court asked the agency to submit a reply.
Chamkaur’s family members said the officers at Dharamkot police station in Moga picked him up on August 14 without disclosing the reason. He was then allegedly whisked away in a vehicle in the presence of DSP Gurdarshan and SHO Bhupinder.
Later, Jora and other villagers went to the police station where the DSP and SHO assured them that Chamkaur would be released in the morning.
Then DSP Gurdarshan and SHO Bhupinder discussed the issue with an ex- sarpanch, Raghbir Singh, and demanded Rs 4 lakh in lieu of Chamkaur’s release, the petitioners alleged.
The villagers sought Moga sen-ior superintendent of police ( SSP)’ s intervention, but they were not allowed to meet him because he was ” busy with Independence Day celebrations”. They approached the DSP and SHO again on August 16. The officers, however, did not budge and repeated their demand. All this time, Chamkaur was detained illegally as the police had not registered any case.
It was then that the accused’s family filed a habeas corpus petition in the high court. On August 20, it appointed a warrant officer to check on Chamkaur at the police station.
The officer found that he was detained illegally and the police officers had not even made an entry in the daily diary register at the station.
The DSP and SHO quickly filed an FIR that stated Chamkaur had been arrested for murdering his wife. To lend credence to their theory, the officers claimed to have recovered Charanjit’s body, which had been ” identified by two villagers”. On August 24, Chamkaur was remanded in judicial custody.
–Agencies