JOGA SINGH Vs. STATE OF PUNJAB

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS is a writ petition under Article 226 of the Constitution of India for the issue of a writ of habeas corpus directing the respondents to produce Punjab Police Constables Rajwinder Singh, Mukhtiar Singh and Baljit Singh, who were alleged to have been arrested and whose whereabouts were not known.

(2.) NOTICE of this petition was issued to the respondents and a reply has been filed by respondent No. 2 Mr. Lok Nath, Superintendent of Police, Jalandhar, in which it has been admitted that Constables Rajwinder Singh and Mukhtiar Singh had been arrested on 4.9.1992 by Sub Inspector Ajit Singh of the C.I.A., Staff, Jalandhar, in First Information Report No. 187 dated 31.10.1991, under Sections 307, Indian Penal Code, 4/5 Explosive Act and 3/4/5 of the Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act, 1987, registered at Police Station, Sub Division 4, Jalandhar, and that they had escaped from the police custody during the course of an encounter with terrorists when they were being taken for the recovery of explosives as per their disclosure statements. It has, however, been denied that Baljit Singh had been forcibly taken by them on 28.8.1992 from Civil Hospital, Sangrur, but it has been claimed that he had been killed on 1.9.1992 in an encounter with the Nakodar Police and explosives and fire-arms had been recovered from the scene of the encounter.

(3.) THE learned District and Sessions Judge, Jalandhar, in his report dated 24.5.1995 held that neither any encounter had taken place nor Mukhtiar Singh and Rajwinder Singh had escaped from police custody. The story by the police has been devised falsely. He further held that it is not acceptable that the two Constables are still absconding; that the police cannot escape its liability merely by saying that they have escaped from police custody; and that, in all probability, their lives have been snuffed by the police. As regards Baljit Singh, the learned District and Sessions Judge held that he has not died in a genuine encounter and that the version has been concocted by the police in this respect.