CRPF officer, 3 others get death penalty in murder case

Moga, Dec 19 (UNI) A CRPF officer and three others were sentenced to death by a local court in the murder case pertaining to the Para Military Force (PMF) officers teenaged son.

Additional Sessions Judge B S Sandhu who had held the four guilty in his judgement on December 11, pronounced the death penalty today. He had acquitted two others for want of sufficient evidence while holding the four guilty of murder.

Those awarded the capital punishment were Harjinder Singh, a CRPF Deputy Commandant who was till recently posted in Jammu and Kashmir and three hired killers-- Manjit Singh alias Sodhi of Sidhiwala in Ludhiana district, Harvinder Singh of Manuka village and Satwant Singh of Reharwan village in Jalandhar district. They were found guilty of murdering the Baghel Singh, the teenaged son of the CRPF officer who was a student of Lala Lajpat Rai Polytechnic Institute, Ajitwal in Moga district at the time of his murder.

Those who were acquitted in the case included Jugraj Singh of Ajitwal, in whose house the deceased was a tenant and Sumandeep Kaur of Delhi.

Baghel Singh was found missing from his rented accomodation on January 23, 2003 by his friend Manandeep Singh, who resided with him. On the statement of Manandeep Singh the Mehna polcie registered a case and launched a search of Baghel Singh.

After 8-10 days, the Kotkapura police found a headless body from the Abohar canal branch and the body was later identified as that of Baghel Singh, by his mother Charanjit Kaur from her sons clothes and other body identification marks. The DNA test on mother and son, confirmed that the body was that of the missing polytechnic student.

Police investigations in the case revealed that Baghel Singh's father, Harjinder Singh did not enjoy the best of relations with his wife, Charanjit Kaur. The CRPF officer who had illict relations with other women including one Sumandeep Kaur of Delhi, also did not enjoy good relations with his son who had written to the CRPF authorities that his father was not paying the expenses for his studies.

The CRPF authotiries had directed Harjinder Singh to pay Rs 5000 per month to his son as study expenses. Harjinder Singh sent the money for four months and then stopped doing so.

In the preliminary chalan, the CRPF officer and Sunmandeep Kaur's names were not mentioned. However after Charanjit Kaur revealed the details of her relationship with her husband, the names of Harjinder Singh and Sumandeep Kaur were added to the chalan.

After going through the evidence of both prosecution as well as of the defence, the Sessions Judge acquitted Summandeep Kaur and Jugraj Singh, owner of the house where deceased, Baghel Singh was staying at the time of his death.

The court in its judgement on December 11 had observed that the murder was a clear case of a 'supari' (hired) killing. The CRPF officer had hired Manjit Singh, Harvinder Singh and Satwant Singh to eliminate his son, the court had observed while holding all the four guilty.

UNI