11 ex-policemen among 13 sentenced to life for killing jail inmate in Punjab

A court here Monday sentenced 13 people, including 11 former policemen, to life imprisonment in a 2014 kidnapping and murder case of a jail inmate.

The court of Additional Sessions Judge Sandeep Singh Bajwa pronounced the quantum of the punishment. The court had convicted all of the accused last week.

All 13 people have been sentenced to life imprisonment, Public Prosecutor Rittu Madan told reporters here.

They include former inspector Narang Singh, former assistant sub-inspectors Gulshanbir Singh and Sawinder Singh, ex-head constables Jagjit Singh, Gurpreet Singh and Lakhwinder Singh, ex-constables Makhtool Singh, Angrej Singh, Lakhwinder Singh, Amandeep Singh and Randhir Singh of the Punjab Police.

The two others are Deep Raj Singh and Jagtar Singh.

On May 5, 2014, jail inmate Bikramjit Singh, who was serving life imprisonment in a murder case, was taken to a government hospital here for treatment.

He was kidnapped from the hospital by a police team led by Narang Singh and taken to Batala, where he was tortured inhumanely and then murdered, as per the complaint filed by the victim's brother, Dalbir Singh.

Following Bikramjit's abduction, police had initially registered a case against him on May 6, 2014, alleging that he escaped from custody. But later, the policemen and two others were booked for his murder.

All the accused have been held guilty under sections 302 (murder), 364 (kidnapping), 342 (wrongful confinement) and 120B (criminal conspiracy) of the IPC.

A total of 14 persons were nominated in this case and one accused, identified as former ASI Baljit Singh, was declared a proclaimed offender and was yet to be arrested.