By IANS
Patiala (Punjab) : Over 11 years after they kidnapped a man from a village on a petty charge of stealing utensils from a gurudwara and killed him, six Punjab police officials were Friday given life imprisonment by a court here.
All the convicted policemen, including a deputy superintendent of police (DSP) and an assistant sub inspector, were also fined Rs. 40,000 each.
The sentence was pronounced by additional district and sessions judge Kuldeep Singh.
DSP Rajinder Pal Singh Anand and five other policemen were accused of kidnapping and subsequently held guilty for the murder of Balbir Singh, a resident of a village near Nabha town in July 1996 and then throwing his body in an irrigation canal.
The Punjab and Haryana high court had directed the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to probe the case following a plea made by Balbir’s relatives.
The relatives had told the court that they feared that he must have been killed while in police custody.
A religious preacher had alleged that Balbir had stolen utensils from a gurudwara.