After CBI court verdict, SSP to serve life imprisonment in jail where he remained Jail Superintendent
Kanwar Inder Singh/ royalpatiala.in News/ August 4,2025
After long wait of more than three decades, the families of those killed in fake encounter today got a sigh of relief after 5 Punjab police officers sentenced to life imprisonment for killing 7 youth. The Court of Special Judge-II, CBI, Punjab, Mohali has sentenced 5 accused police personnel to life imprisonment with a fine of Rs. 3.5 lakh each in a Fake/Stage Managed Encounter Case.
One of the convicted Punjab police officer Bhupinderjit Singh who served as senior superintendent of police (SSP) in Punjab, had also remained Superintendent of Central Jail, Patiala, where now is going to serve his life imprisonment.
The case related to 1993 where Punjab police officers stage managed a fake encounter killing innocent youths of Tarn Taran, Punjab.
Initially 10 police personnel were named as accused in the case. However, five of them passed away during the course of the prolonged trial. The remaining five have now been convicted and sentenced.
CBI filed the chargesheet in the case on 31.05.2002 against 10 accused police officers-DSP Bhupinderjit Singh, ASI Devinder Singh,ASI Gulbarg Singh,Inspr. Suba Singh,ASI Raghubir Singh. Inspr. Gurdev Singh , SI Gian Chand, ASI Jagir Singh,HC Mohinder Singh and HC Aroor Singh, passed away during the trial.
The CBI special court on Monday delivered its verdict in the case and sentenced five police officers, including retired SSP Bhupinderjit Singh and retired DSP Davinder Singh, to life imprisonment. All the accused were tried under IPC Sections 302 (murder) and 120-B (criminal conspiracy).
The case pertains to extrajudicial killings of seven youth’s in two separate encounters dates back to 1993. Among the deceased, four were posted as Special Police Officers (SPOs). The convicted officers abducted the youths from their homes on June 27, 1993, kept them in illegal custody for several days, and tortured them.
The fake encounter was carried out under the leadership of then DSP Bhupinderjit Singh on July 28, 1993. FIRs for two separate staged encounters were registered at Valowal and Saharali police stations in Tarn Taran. Seven youths were killed in these encounters. Following a Supreme Court order on December 12, 1996, the case was handed over to the CBI.
On July 2, 1993, Punjab Police had claimed that three men—Shinder Singh, Desa Singh, and Sukhdev Singh—had fled with government weapons. Ten days later, on July 12, a fake encounter was staged under the leadership of DSP Bhupinderjit Singh and Inspector Gurdev Singh.
