A special CBI court in Mohali has sentenced former Punjab Police SSP Gurmeet Singh Randhawa to seven years of imprisonment in a 34-year-old kidnapping case involving Ludhiana-based transporter Amrik Singh Sakri.
The verdict came a day after, on November 11, the court convicted Randhawa for abducting the transporter from a wedding function in 1992. The case took nearly 34 years to reach its conclusion.
At the time of the kidnapping, Randhawa was serving as a DSP. Despite the case continuing for decades, he was subsequently promoted to the rank of SSP. Meanwhile, the alleged mastermind of the kidnapping, then SSP Ajit Singh Sandhu, died during the trial. Three other policemen accused of carrying out the abduction also died before the case could reach its conclusion.
Amrik Singh Sakri was a transporter based in Ludhiana. On November 25, 1992, he had gone to Hotel Amaltas to attend the wedding of his brother-in-law’s daughter. During the function, a team of Tarn Taran Police allegedly took him away. He was never seen again.
According to the CBI investigation, information about Amrik Singh’s abduction was conveyed to senior police officials through a telegram. Several attempts were reportedly made to secure his release by approaching then Chief Minister Beant Singh and other senior officials, but all efforts proved unsuccessful.
Amrik Singh’s nephew, Dilbagh Singh, also confirmed that six police officials, including then SSP Ajit Singh Sandhu and DSP Gurmeet Singh Randhawa, were involved in taking his uncle away.
He said he had also met Amrik Singh in Tarn Taran the following day. However, the DSP who had arranged the meeting was later threatened.
In 1996, Amrik Singh’s wife filed a habeas corpus petition in the Supreme Court, seeking information about her missing husband.
During the proceedings, the Punjab government informed the court that Amrik Singh had died. The government also submitted advertisements related to his last rites as evidence.
However, the family refused to accept the government’s claim.
Around the same time, the Supreme Court ordered a CBI investigation into cases involving cremations of unidentified and unclaimed bodies by the Punjab Police. Amrik Singh’s case was also brought under the scope of the investigation
The CBI initiated a preliminary inquiry into the matter in January 1999. Subsequently, in February 2000, it registered a regular case involving charges of kidnapping, illegal detention, tampering with official records and criminal conspiracy.
In 2001, the CBI filed a chargesheet against then DSP (D) of Tarn Taran Gurmeet Singh Randhawa, then SHO Inspector Suba Singh, SI Surinder Singh, Constable Parminderjit Singh alias Babbu and ASI Jaswant Singh.
The chargesheet identified then SSP Ajit Singh Sandhu as the alleged mastermind behind the kidnapping conspiracy. However, he died during the investigation.
When the trial began in 2022, several important pieces of evidence submitted by the CBI were reportedly found missing from the court records.
These included witness statements, photographs and video footage of the wedding, as well as logbooks of vehicles used by the accused police officers.
The records were subsequently reconstructed following directions from the Punjab and Haryana High Court.
According to lawyers representing the victim’s family, Sarabjit Singh, Jagjit Singh and Pushpinder Singh Natt, the case records were allegedly made to disappear to evade legal accountability.
After nearly 34 years, the special CBI court in Mohali finally delivered its verdict. Special Judge Dinesh Kumar Wadhwa convicted former SSP Gurmeet Singh Randhawa and sentenced him to seven years in prison.
Meanwhile, his security guard Parminderjit Singh was acquitted after the court extended him the benefit of doubt due to insufficient evidence against him.
The verdict marks a significant development in a decades-old case in which the victim’s family had waited more than three decades for justice.
