Ambala, June 5
The Special Judge for CBI cases in Haryana, Mr M.M. Sharma, today sentenced an IAS officer of Arunachal Pradesh cadre, D.C. Sankhla, and three others to life imprisonment in the Sushil Jain murder case. Sankhla belongs to Haryana and he had a dispute over a farm house owned by Jain.
Besides Sankhla, the others who were awarded life term include Som Dutt Tyagi, Rajinder Kumar son of Shyam Lal and Rajinder Kumar son of Ratan Singh. Three counsels, Mr S.K. Saxena, Mr Umrish Gandhi and Mr Sartaj Singh, appeared in the court on behalf of the CBI.
According to the prosecution, Jain had a farm house spread on 27 acres of land in Patti Kalyan near Samalakha in Haryana. Sankhla had been claiming its ownership on the basis of two agreements in which he claimed that Mr Jain had sold the farm house to him. On the other hand, Jain denied that he had made any agreement with Sankhla in this regard.
Jain had filed several complaints against Sankhla with CBI and the Union Home Minister. On the basis of the complaints, the CBI registered a case against Sankhla. Sankhla had also filed two civil suits against Jain,
challenging the ownership of the farm house.
Sankhla had three acres of land adjoining the farm house. There was no entry passage to approach his land.
So, he had to use the passage of the farm house.
The body of Sushil Jain was found in his car on April 22, 1996 on the G.T. road near Samalakha. The post-mortem report confirmed that he had died of bullet injuries. The local police had registered a murder case in this regard but the relatives of the deceased were not satisfied with the investigation of the district police. They filed a petition in the Punjab and High Court for handing over the investigation of the case to the CBI. On October 17, 1996, the court handed over the case to the CBI.
The CBI registered a murder case against Sankhla, Som Dutt Tyagi, Rajinder Kumar son of Shyam Lal, Rajinder Kumar son of Rattan Lal, and Heera Lal. Accused Heera Lal fled during the trial and the court had declared him a proclaimed offender. First of all, the CBI nabbed Som Dutt who disclosed the whole episode to the CBI. Later, the other accused were arrested. The CBI produced 102 witnesses in the court.
