M A I N   N E W S

ADGP, 3 others convicted
Murder of NRI businessman
Tribune News Service

Patiala, August 1
Punjab Additional Director-General of Police (ADGP) Daljit Singh Bhullar and three others have been convicted on charges of brutally murdering non-resident Indian and their business partner Dr Paramjit Singh Sahota in 1996 by a local court here today.

The District Sessions Judge, Mr S.N. Aggarwal, today convicted the ADGP and two other business partners Agyapal Singh and Ladwinder Singh besides Assistant Sub Inspector Krishan Kumar, who was then attached with the ADGP, on charges of murdering the businessman and his cousin Satnam Singh besides Vikram Chand who was the driver of the car they had hired from Delhi to travel to Punjab. The quantum of sentence on all three will be pronounced on August 3. The fifth accused in the case — Sandeep Ohri — has been acquitted.

The bodies of all the three victims were recovered in an unrecognisable condition from their hired car which had been burnt after placing the bodies in them near Gagar Majra village near Khanna in September, 1996. Dr Sahota was a partner of the Bhullars and they had together set up two firms Gabor Holographics in Delhi and V.S. Illusions Private Limited at Mohali to manufacture holograms.

The court today found all the accused guilty of hatching a criminal conspiracy to murder the victims, burning them in a car and manufacturing false affidavits to take control of the companies in which Dr Sahota and his family were partners. While the ADGP had been granted bail in the case earlier, all the other accused were in prison.

Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) special counsel R.K. Handa while pleading the case said only the ADGP and other business partners who were accused of the murder could benefit from the death of the victims. He said besides this Sahota was last seen in the house of Ladwinder Singh at Mohali. The CBI also highlighted the fact that the accused had prepared a false affidavit by faking the signatures of Harnek Singh, a brother of Sahota, to show that he had resigned as a director of the firms.