Amritsar: Mother seeks lifer for ex-cop

PK Jaiswar

Amritsar, February 3

Swarn Kaur, mother of Santokh Singh, a Punjab State Electricity Board employee who was allegedly abducted and kept in illegal detention by Tarn Taran police before his mysterious disappearance during the heyday of militancy in 1991, expressed her dissatisfaction over the decision of the CBI Special Court, Mohali.

The court convicted Inspector Major Singh (retd), the then SHO of Tarn Taran’s Sadar police station, and sentenced him to 10-year rigorous imprisonment on Monday.

She said being a cop, he had the duty to safeguard the public, but he kidnapped and illegally detained her son before his mysterious disappearance. “The court should have sentenced him to life imprisonment or death sentence,” she said. She said she has been fighting the legal battle for the past 32 years. “The sentence was unduly lenient for such a grave and heinous crime. We will review the judgment and challenge it in the High Court seeking life sentence for abduction and killing,” said their advocate Jagjit Singh Bajwa.

The case

Santokh Singh of Jaspal village in Baba Bakala here, was posted at the Butari subdivision. On July 13, 1991, after he returned from duty, the accused cop, Major Singh, along with a police party, raided and arrested him in front of his mother Swaran Kaur and wife Rajwinder Kaur. He was allegedly kept in illegal detention for 10 days before he mysteriously disappeared and the police failed to give any satisfactory answer about his whereabouts. Swaran Kaur pleaded for the release of her son and even approached the higher police authorities. For the past three decades, she fought relentlessly for truth and justice.