Chandigarh: The Punjab and Haryana High Court has taken suo motu notice of the police encounter in which Ranjit Singh, accused in the murder of two policemen at the Adiyan police post in Gurdaspur, was killed.
Punjab Director General of Police Gaurav Yadav appeared before the court through video conferencing during the hearing. The court raised questions over the incident and said it could not “sit with closed eyes” in such a matter. The bench directed the DGP to submit a detailed response within two weeks. The next hearing has been scheduled for March 17.
Meanwhile, the deceased’s mother, Sukhjinder Kaur, has filed a petition in the High Court seeking an independent investigation by a retired judge or the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). The plea is expected to be heard separately. The family has also questioned the police version of the encounter and has not yet performed the last rites of the youth.
According to officials, the case was listed for hearing in the afternoon and coincided with proceedings in another matter related to jailed gangster Lawrence Bishnoi.
The incident dates back to February 22, when two policemen were shot dead at the Adiyan police check post near the India-Pakistan border in Gurdaspur district. The victims were ASI Gurnam Singh and Home Guard constable Ashok Kumar.
Police claimed the attack was carried out at the behest of Pakistan’s intelligence agency and that the accused were allegedly offered money to carry out the killings. Nineteen-year-old Ranjit Singh, a resident of Adiyan village and the main accused in the case, was killed in a police encounter on February 25 in the Puranashala area.
Police said he tried to escape from custody and opened fire, prompting officers to retaliate. Another accused, Dilawar Singh, was arrested while the third suspect, Inderjit Singh, was later detained from Amritsar.
However, the encounter has sparked controversy, with Ranjit Singh’s family alleging it was a fake encounter. They claim the youth was picked up from his home and later killed by police. The family has also alleged that CCTV cameras from the area were removed and demanded a proper postmortem and impartial investigation.
