Chandigarh: ‘The Punjab and Haryana High Court on Wednesday issued a notice to CBI on a petition that sought summoning of Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh’s personal security advisor (PSA) Khubi Ram – a retired inspector general – as an additional accused in a 1993 case of alleged custodial deaths’, reads a report in The Indian Express (IE).
A criminal revision petition filed by Gurmit Kaur through her counsel said that six of her immediate relatives were picked up, illegally detained and later murdered by Punjab Police officials in 1992-1993.
‘The plea added that the investigation was transferred to CBI in 1997, and it was concluded that Sant Baba Charan Singh, his three brothers, his brother-in-law and his son (Kaur’s husband and son), were kept in illegal detention by CIA staff Tarn Taran and in other police stations and killed days after that. Kaur and other relatives met the detainees when they were in custody’, the IE has reported while citing the petition.
“The petitioner would take permission from Khubi Ram, the then SP (operation), Tarn Taran, before being allowed access to her detained kin. The statements of the petitioner and her daughter-in-law Kulwinder Kaur and other witnesses were duly recorded by CBI at the time of original investigation,” the petition reportedly reads.
It is notable that the Special CBI Court in Mohali had earlier declined a plea to summon Ram as additional accused in the trial.
The plea said Gurmit Kaur and the other witnesses have recorded statements that prove “illegal raid and entry” in their house, during which her husband and son were apprehended, by the police and CRPF party headed by Ram as the then SP (operation) in March 1993.
“During trial, Khubi Ram was continuously contacting the complainant, victims and other witnesses of this case and pressurizing/alluring them to depose in this case as per his wishes/whims and fancy and avoid naming him,” the petition reportedly adds.