Chandigarh, March 11
Five convicts in the Manoj-Babli honour killing case have escaped the gallows, but the policemen investigating the case are in the dock.
Holding them guilty of being “hand in glove” with the “accused party”, the Punjab and Haryana High Court has ordered disciplinary action against them. On death row, Gurdev Singh, Suresh Kumar, Rajinder Singh and Baru Ram have been sentenced to 20 years’ rigorous imprisonment without remissions. Also facing the death penalty, Satish stands acquitted, along with lifer Ganga Raj.
Another convict, Mandeep Singh’s seven-year jail sentence has been maintained by the Division Bench of Justice Satish Kumar Mittal and M Jayapaul. Mandeep Singh was the driver of the car in which the bodies of Manoj and Babli were carried to a canal.
The High Court orders come about a year after Additional District and Sessions Judge Vani Gopal Sharma had placed the case in the “rarest of rare” category, sentencing to death Babli’s brother Suresh, uncles Rajinder and Baru Ram and cousins Gurdev and Satish.
Manoj, 23, of Karoran village in Kaithal district, had married Babli, 19, against the wishes of her family on April 7, 2007. The entire village had turned against Manoj's family. His marriage with Babli, who belonged to the same gotra, had invited the ire of the khap panchayat. The couple shifted to Karnal but was killed on June 15, 2007, on the orders of the khap. The panchayat had also announced a fine of Rs 25,000 on those found keeping ties with them.
The Bench said there was no direct evidence that Gurdev Singh, Suresh Kumar, Rajinder Singh and Baru Ram had committed the murders. “Our conscience does not permit us to confirm the death sentence,” the Bench ruled, adding that “no offence was made out against Satish Kumar”.
Directing the Haryana DGP to initiate disciplinary proceedings against SI Jagbir Singh, SI Dharam Pal and Inspector Subhash, the Bench said: “We find that the investigating agency, in such a sensational case, bungled at each and every stage.
“Firstly, SI Jagbir Singh, who perceived a threat to the lives of Manoj and Babli, should not have withdrawn security….
“Till their departure from Pipli, there was a real threat to their lives from the family of Babli. Very strangely, SI Jagbir Singh obtained some statement from Manoj and Babli and virtually landed them in a death trap…. “We are constrained to infer that, in fact, the police officials were hand in glove with the accused party. “We find that they did not evince any interest, as warranted in this case, to collect material against the accused …. “Quite unfortunately, novices in the investigating field were employed to detect the shocking crime for reasons best known to the police.”
