Activist Khalra custodial death: SC upholds life in jail for Punjab cops

Express news service, Sat, Nov 05, 2011, New Delhi:

The Supreme Court on Friday upheld the sentence of life imprisonment to five Punjab Police officials including DSP Jaspal Singh in the custodial death case of Amritsar-based human rights activist Jaswant Singh Khalra in 1995.

Jaswant Singh Khalra was a human rights activist and had been general secretary, Human Rights Wing of the Shiromani Akali Dal. He had been working on abduction and cremation of unclaimed/unidentified bodies during the disturbed period in Punjab, particularly in Amritsar and Taran Taran districts, a Bench led by Justice B S Chauhan quoted from CBI records.

“The police had been eliminating the young persons under the pretext of being militants and was disposing of their dead bodies without maintaining any record and without performing their last rites,” the court observed in its judgment on Friday.

Recounting the prosecution version, the judgment records that the police had hatched a conspiracy and abducted Khalra on September 6, 1995 from his residence, kept him in illegal detention, killed him and disposed his body in a canal.

Noting that “police atrocities are always violative of the constitutional mandate”, the judgment said “tolerance of police atrocities, as in the instant case, would amount to acceptance of systematic subversion and erosion of the rule of law”.

“We do not find any reason to interfere with the well reasoned judgment and order of the High Court. The facts of the case do not warrant review of the findings recorded by the courts below,” the Bench said.

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/Activist-Khalra-custodial-death--SC-upholds-life-in-jail-for-Punjab-cops/871023/

J&K: Another ‘custodial death’, 4 cops suspended

Express news service, Sat, Nov 05, 2011, Jammu:

The Jammu and Kashmir Police are in the dock once again over the death of a youth under mysterious circumstances a day after he was arrested on November 1.

The body of 25-year-old Vijay Kumar, a former private transport vehicle driver who had turned to farming, was found in the fields near his house in Gulbadechak on November 2. His family members alleged that he was killed in custody and dumped there.

Four policemen including incharge of the Gajansoo police station, ASI Om Parkash Sharma, have been suspended and attached with the District Police Lines at Jammu. An SPO, Ranjit Singh, has been disengaged from service.

A departmental inquiry has also been ordered into the matter. Meanwhile, Deputy Commissioner, Jammu , Sanjeev Verma, has also ordered a magisterial inquiry. The probe will be conducted by Additional Deputy Commissioner Rohit Khajuria.

The police said Vijay was taken into custody on November 1 for a theft case and that he had fled the next morning. They claimed he had been arrested on charges of selling intoxicant capsules earlier too.

Vijay’s brother Kuldeep Raj, however, said that he was killed in police custody. He said on November 1, in the afternoon, Vijay was going to the fields where he along with his father had harvested the paddy crop. On the way, some policemen including SPO Ranjit Singh in a Gypsy stopped him.

Kuldeep alleged that Vijay was handcuffed and made to run along the police Gypsy for nearly a kilometre up to the Gajansoo Chowk, where the policemen beat him before before taking him to the nearby police post. The police, however, deny the charge.

Vijay’s mother Sushma Devi, 60, went to the police post where ASI Sharma told her that her son had been sent to Kanchak police station.

Vijay’s father Puran Chand, 65, said the next day a youth brought him a message from the Munshi at the police post to settle the case for Rs 2,000. According to him, he along with his cousin went to the police post where they were made to give their thumb impression on blank papers. The Munshi then asked them to bring back Vijay to the police post, saying he had fled earlier in the day.

The same evening, the family found Vijay’s dead body from the agricultural field near their house.

The next day when doctors were preparing to conduct postmortem, the police claimed to have seized intoxicant capsules from Vijay’s pocket, triggering protests from the villagers. Accusing the police of planting the capsules, the villagers held a demonstration outside the hospital. The authorities then suspended the policemen at Gajansoo post.

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/j&k-another-custodial-death-4-cops-suspended/871020/0

Mirchpur: Life term to 3, five get 5 yrs in jail

Express news service, Tue, Nov 01, 2011, New Delhi:

A Delhi court today awarded life sentence to three persons for their role in the April 2010 killing of a 70-year-old Dalit and his physically-challenged daughter in Haryana’s Mirchpur.

Additional Sessions Judge (ASJ) Kamini Lau sentenced Kulwinder, Ramphal and Rajender to life under the Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.

The court sentenced five others to five years’ jail along with a fine of Rs 20,000 each. Baljeet, Karambir, Karampal, Dharambir and Bobal were convicted for rioting, causing hurt, and setting ablaze victims’ houses.

The court said the fine recovered from the convicts would be given to the victims as compensation.

Seven convicts were released on probation of good conduct for a year with supervision after furnishing of personal bonds of Rs 10,000 each. The court held that Sumit, Pradeep, Rajpal, Sunil, Rishi, Monu and Pradeep were first-time offenders and were not guilty under the SC/ST Act.

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/Mirchpur--Life-term-to-3--five-get-5-yrs-in-jail/868537/

95-yr-old gets life sentence for murder

HT Correspondent, Hindustan Times, New Delhi, October 19, 2011

A 95-year-old woman was on Tuesday given life sentence by the Delhi High Court for burning to death her daughter-in-law and her seven-month-old grandson 15 years ago for dowry. The order comes 13 years after a trial court acquitted her. The high court held Sumitra guilty of committing the double murder in collusion with her elder son and daughter-in-law after setting aside the trial court’s 1998 order, acquitting the trio. The woman’s elder son and daughter-in-law, however, died early this year before the high court could conclude its hearing.

The high court convicted Sumitra, relying upon the dying declaration of the victim Meenu, who had told the sub-divisional magistrate the three had set her ablaze after dousing her with kerosene oil even as she held her child in her arms.

She said though her husband and her father-in-law never harassed her, her mother-in-law and her elder son and his wife used to harass her for dowry.

“Finding the dying declaration of Meenu to be inspiring utmost confidence, with no iota of doubt about her mental faculty, we unhesitatingly rely upon it to hold that the charge of murder stands proved beyond doubt against the respondent-accused, as she was instrumental in setting Meenu on fire,” the bench said, convicting the nonagenarian woman.

Pulling up the trial judge, the high court said “such an approach of the trial court is not only patently perverse but has also resulted in a grave miscarriage of justice”.

http://www.hindustantimes.com/95-yr-old-gets-life-sentence-for-murder/Article1-758917.aspx

Man, wife get life term for killing child

SATURDAY, 17 SEPTEMBER 2011, SANA SHAKIL | NEW DELHI

A harmless argument between two five-year olds deteriorated into a fatal act of retribution with parents of one of the children being awarded life imprisonment, after the couple was proved guilty of murdering a little girl, by a city court. The couple, in a fit of rage after their tiny tots had a quarrel, set alight their jhuggi in Jahangirpuri area of the capital which led to the death of five-year old Tamanna. Tamanna’s parents and three other siblings escaped the fire with non-life threatening burns but Tamanna was consumed by the flames.

The root cause of the gruesome crime was a petty quarrel which had taken place between Aman (Tamanna’s brother) and Ravi and Kundan, sons of the convicted couple. On the fateful evening on February 8, 2009, after the children had an argument, Tamanna’s father Firangi sat with the quarelling children, gave them some counselling and put matters to rest. Ravi and Kundan’s mother Guddi, and her husband Kamal got annoyed with the situation and threatened Firangi with dire consequences. Threatening to burn down their jhuggi, Guddi told Firangi, “Ab toh tum bach gaye, jao aaj raat ko tumhein dekh loongi, tumhari jhuggi ko aag laga doongi.”

According to prosecution witnesses present at the spot, which included the neighbours, Guddi refused to heed to numerous suggestions to calm down and called the cops.

Relatives of the deceased told the cops that it was just a quarrel between the two children, after which the cops left.

Tamanna’s uncle Mukesh told the court that on February 9, 2009 when he went outside to answer nature’s call at around 4 am in the morning, he saw Kamal and Guddi standing outside their jhuggi with a bottle of kerosene in hand and sprinkling the same all over the jhuggi.

As Mukesh rushed to stop them from setting alight their home, Guddi immediately lit a match which engulfed the jhuggi and resulted in the death of the little girl.

Mukesh raised an alarm and with the help of the neighbours they tried to save all the family members, but unfortunately not Tamanna. They rushed her to BJRM Hospital, where the doctors declared her ‘brought dead’.

In the course of investigations, police recovered two two-litre bottles of kerosene in the jhuggi of the convicted couple with remnants of kerosene still present. Tarun Khurana, witness in the case, who was working in an MCD Park nearby said in his statement that he saw accused Kamal running out of the lane of the victim’s jhuggi. Furthermore, in his statement Tarun said that on that day he saw Kamal taking tea near A-1 Market, Jahangirpuri at 4.10 am.

After finishing his tea he got up and left and soon after there were flames coming from the A-1 jhuggis. While convicting the accused of murder charges, Additional Sessions Judge Ravinder Dudeja said “I have no reason to disbelieve the testimony of Mukesh (Firangi’s brother) who has been able to prove that it was accused Kamal who had sprinkled kerosene on the jhuggi of Firangi and it was accused Guddi who had set the jhuggi on fire resulting in the death of a small child. I therefore hold both the accused guilty and convict them under Sections 302/436/34 IPC. Considering the totality of facts, the accused are sentenced with imprisonment and a fine of 5,000.”

http://www.dailypioneer.com/sunday-edition/others/townhall/7127-man-wife-get-life-term-for-killing-child.html

Youth lands in jail for stealing Rs 115 20-yr ago

SUNDAY, 18 SEPTEMBER 2011, AMARNATH TEWARY | PATNA

It’s the perfect case of fact being stranger than fiction. A man from Buxar district of Bihar, who was caught picking pockets at the age of nine, was sent to jail after 20 years when he turned 29 last fortnight. He now needs Rs 5,000 as bail for allegedly stealing Rs 115 but is unable to do so as he is a marginal worker.

This amazing story of Shera Singh began in 1991, when he was caught picking pockets at Dumaron bus-stand in Bhojpur. He was nine years old at the time.

According to Buxar lawyer Shashi Kant Ojha, Shera was produced in chief judicial magistrate court in Ara in 1991 despite being a minor. Buxar was not a separate district at the time. The Ara court released the ‘delinquent’ Shera on bail but the case was not closed.

However, in 1994, Buxar was carved out as a new district and the court handling Shera’s case was shifted to the new district. For 16 years, Shera’s papers could not be traced.

There was no follow-up until 20 years later, the day he turned 29 years old and was sent to jail for a ‘crime’ he had forgotten all about.

A non-bailable warrant was issued against Shera and the police moved to attach his properties. The order came as a bolt from blue for Shera and he surrendered before the designated court to avoid confiscation of his properties. He was sent to jail and has been languishing there. He now requires Rs 5,000 for the bail bond, which appears a daunting task for him.

Shera appeared clueless about the incomprehensible example of justice meted out to him. Legal experts say the maximum sentence for his offence could be three years.

But whose fault is it after all? According to Ojha, “It happened because of his lawyer’s mistake and since there was no juvenile court in Ara at that time. Of course, the misplacement of court documents during shifting from Ara to Buxar, which kept his case hanging for such a long period of time, is also to be blamed.”

According to a recent report released by the Bihar social justice department, there are 16,000 juvenile cases pending in different courts of the State. Patna alone accounts for more than 1,500 cases till March 31. The cases remain pending despite Section 14 of the Juvenile Justice Act, 2000, mandating disposal within four months of registration.

Department officials now only express optimism that the trial of juvenile cases would be fast-tracked in the districts following constitution of the proposed juvenile justice tribunal.

http://www.dailypioneer.com/pioneer-news/nation/7241-youth-lands-in-jail-for-stealing-rs-115-20-yr-ago.html