NURMAHAL
The Punjab and Haryana High Court will hear on Monday a petition filed by former Nurmahal SHO Shiv Dev Singh Kahlon.
It is listed before a bench of Justice Gurvinder Singh Gill
Kahlon had submitted in the court that the continuation of the proceeding on the basis of FIR No.112 dated 01.07.2007, under Sections 217, 323, 342, 306, 120-B of IPC and Section 13 of the Prevention of Corruption Act and Sections 3/4 of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes Act, is a misuse of the process of law because cancellation reports were repeatedly submitted before the trial Court five times but the same was not accepted by the trial Court and lastly, the matter was sent back for reinvestigation on 29.11.2016. Thereafter, the matter is pending with the investigating agency.
It may be mentioned here that a Phillaur court while dismissing the cancellation report filed by the Nurmahal police in the Nurmahal triple suicide case, had held that there is another scope of investigation in the FIR. As per the certified copy of the court order, the court of judicial magistrate first class said that the perusal of the present cancellation report reveals that the FIR no112 dated1.7.2007under section 217,323,342,506and 120-B of the IPC against Shivdev Singh was registered after an inquiry conducted by Pritam Singh SDM Phillaur.
The court had said that no doubt after later another inquiry conducted by another police officer found Shivdev Singh innocent. But both the inquiries conducted by officials are contradictory.
The court said that Resham Singh who came presently in the court is not a complainant and is a relative of the deceased who earlier made a statement that he is not satisfied with the police investigation and now he made a statement that he has no objection if the cancellation report is accepted.
Judicial magistrate first class had said that all the above facts show that there is the further scope of the investigation and accordingly the cancellation report is sent back to the concerned police station for further investigation.
Four investigations into the case had fallen flat. Additional district and sessions judge BK Mehta in 2009 had ordered reinvestigation after finding flaws in the report. Phillaur judicial magistrate Amandeep Singh in 2011 rejected the closure report and ordered a reinvestigation.
Sukhdev, 30, his six-month pregnant wife Bindar along with their six-month-old daughter Kusum had jumped before a running train at Nurmahal on June 8, 2007, after the then Nurmahal station house officer Shivdev Singh Kahlon allegedly told Sukhdev that they would torture his family just as they did him for not helping the police to trace his cousin involved in an abduction case. Sukhdev was kept in illegal custody for three days and subjected to severe torture, it was alleged.
The then Phillaur SDM Pritam Singh had recommended the registration of an FIR after conducting a magisterial report.
The family of the victim had accused the investigators not doing enough to nail former Nurmahal SHO Shivdev Singh and urged the state government to constitute a special investigating team, headed by an IG rank officer, but to no avail.
Kahlon was booked under various sections of the IPC, prevention of Corruption Act, and SC/ST Atrocities (Prevention) ACT based on the magisterial inquiry that indicted him for “illegal confinement, torture, and corruption which drove the family to take the extreme step. He was arrested on July 1, 2007, but he was released on bail due to the failure of Jalandhar police to submit a challan in court. The role of the police has been suspected since the beginning.