(1.) THIS is a petition under Article 226 of the Constitution of India for the issuance of a writ of habeas corpus or any other appropriate writ, order or direction directing the respondents to produce Bhagat Singh, brother of Sant Singh, petitioner, in this Court and to release him from their illegal custody and in case the respondents fail to produce Bhagat Singh in the Court, to order an independent probe preferably by the CBI, in order to ascertain the whereabouts of Bhagat Singh.
(2.) IN the petition, it was alleged that on 11.6.1993, the Police of CIA Staff, Bhawanigarh, raided the house of Bhagat Singh, brother of the petitioner, in village Salempur and since Bhagat Singh was not present in his house, the police came to the house of the petitioner and took the petitioner along with it telling Gurbachan Singh, Sarpanch, that the petitioner would be released only if Bhagat Singh, brother of the petitioner, was handed over to the police. It was alleged that at that time Raghbir Singh, brother-in-law of the petitioner was also with the police and both of them were taken to Police Station, Bhawanigarh, and were kept there; that on 13.6.1993, the police of Police Station, Malerkotla, again raided the house of Bhagat Singh and he was not found present even at that time, whereupon the police raided the house of the petitioner and at that time, petitioner's brother Kunda Singh and his brother-in-law Ved Singh, who had come to enquire about the whereabouts of the petitioner, were also picked up by the police and were taken to Police Station, Malerkotla; that on 15.6.1993, Ved Singh was released and he was directed to produce Bhagat Singh in Police Station, Malerkotla; that after some days, Bhagat Singh was brought to CIA staff and at that time, he was in a bad shape and both of his legs were broken; that during their illegal detention, the petitioner and his brother-in-law Raghbir Singh were badly tortured and ultimately on 30.6.1993, the petitioner and his relations were released; that after few days after his release, the petitioner met the concerned authorities to know the whereabouts of his brother Bhagat Singh, but of no avail; that the whereabouts of Bhagat Singh were not known since then.
(3.) AFTER hearing both the sides, Hon'ble S.C. Malte, J. (as his Lordships then was), vide order dated 2.9.1997, directed the Sessions Judge, Sangrur, to hold further enquiry himself or get it conducted from any of his subordinates and submit his report within six months. In pursuance thereof, Sh. J.P. Mehmi, Additional Sessions Judge, Sangrur, held the enquiry and submitted his report dated 13.10.1998 to this Court. In nutshell, the finding given in the said report was that Bhagat Singh was arrested by the police, but the story put forth by the police that Bhagat Singh had escaped from the police custody was false and concocted and the needle of suspicion for the elimination of Bhagat Singh stopped at the lower level, but such heinous act could not have been done by the lower rankers without the green signal of the higher officers.