High Court Issues Notice To CBI On Plea To Probe Alleged Custodial Death Of Man In Punjab Prison

The Punjab & Haryana High Court has issued notice to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Punjab Government on a plea filed by a woman seeking a CBI probe into the alleged custodial death of her husband in Punjab's Rupnagar prison.

While adjourning the matter to September 30, Justice Vinod S. Bhardwaj said, "Reply(ies), if any, be filed on or before the adjourned date with copy in advance to the learned counsel for the petitioner."

According to the petition, Charanpreet alias Channi passed away in police custody on account of brutal torture committed by the jail authorities at District Jail, Rupnagar on July 24.

"The then SHO Block Majri due to grudge with the husband of the Petitioner was falsely implicated the husband ofthe Petitioner in FIR No. 24 dated 14.08.2018 under sections 307, 364, 323 of IPC and under Sections 25, 27, 24, 59 of the Arms Act registered at PS Block Majri District SAS Nagar Mohali and during the custody Channi was brutally tortured," added the petition.

He was remanded to Police custody on April 15, 2019, and was produced before the Magistrate on April 16, no injury was reported in his medical examination but after further remand of two days, four injuries were reported, stated the plea.

It was further submitted that the SDJM, Kharar suspecting the case of custodial torture directed the SMO, Civil Hospital, Kharar to conduct a special medical examination of Channi where after the examination five injuries were reported and probable duration of those injuries was 2-3 days.

The SDJM Kharar observed that the medical report corroborates the version of the statement of Channi and hence the statement was treated as a private complaint under Section 331, 337 IPC read with Section 120-B IPC, added the plea.

The petitioner further stated that because Channi refused to withdraw his complaint of custodial torture he was further implicated in different FIRs pertaining to NDPS cases.

Petitioner Gurdeep Kaur alleged in the plea that the post-mortem conducted in the case is also biased and it has no mention of several injuries on the body of the deceased.

Kaur also stated that police authorities refused to register an FIR on her complaint and the Judicial magistrate also did not entertain her plea.

Mr. Chanchal K. Singla, Advocate for the petitioner.

 Mr. Ravi Kamal Gupta appeared for the CBI

Mr. R.P.S. Bara, Addl. AG Punjab for Punjab Govt.

 Mr. Shailesh Aggarwal for R. Ambedkar, Medical College, SAS Nagar

 Title: GURDEEP KAUR Vs. CBI & Ors.

Click here to read/download the order