Jalandhar, January 7
A fast track court here sentenced to death a “serial baby killer” who allegedly had killed over 20 children, mostly migrants, after kidnapping them, a few years back.
Additional sessions judge I.S. Bajwa ordered to hang Darbara Singh till death in the case relating to the murders of two children Khursheed (5) and his cousin Ropu (6) in 2004.
While he was acquitted in three such cases, over 20 cases of murder, rape and sodomy of girls and boys are pending against him.
In a complaint to the police in
October 2004, Mohammad Vakil- a resident of Darbhanga district in Bihar, now residing at Basti Mithu here,alleged his son Khursheed and niece Ropu had gone missing under mysterious circumstances.
Later their bodies were found from a sugarcane field at a village on the Kala Sanghian road. An FIR under Sections 364 and 302 of the IPC was registered in this regard. Statement of one of the prosecution witnesses Pritam Singh played vital role in convicting Darbara Singh, an ex-serviceman.
The police a few months back formed a special team headed by SP (traffic) Rakesh Kaushal, which nabbed the guilty on October 30, 2004, to pursue the cases against after his acquittal in three such cases.
Darbara Singh used to make migrants’ children his victims as he felt it was because of a migrant labourer family of adjoining Kapurthala district that he had to remain in jail for a decade. According to he had already been sentenced to imprisonment for allegedly raping and attempting to murder a migrant girl but was released after 10 years without completing full term from the Ludhiana jail for his `good conduct’ in the jail.
Subsequently, he came to Jalandhar where he took a room on rent in Model House locality and started working in a factory and simultaneously started making migrant children his victims.
