PATIALA: After a gap of three years, Jagtar Singh Tara, the mastermind of former Punjab chief minister
Beant Singh's assassination, was on Friday produced before a local court in connection with the murder of
Rashtriya Sikh Sangat chief Rulda Singh’s, who was gunned down outside his house in 2009.
As per a court order issued under Section 268 of the CrPc, there was a ban on taking Tara out of the Burial jail, since he was facing charges in the
Beant Singh assassination case. As the case had recently been decided, the ban under the said section of the law has been lifted.
Following this, Tara's defence counsel Brijinder Singh Sodhi had moved an application in the court seeking that he should be brought before the court on a production warrant.
During the court proceedings, the police moved an application that since no case was now pending against Tara in in Chandigarh, he be shifted to a jail in Punjab in view of the pending case against him. The Chandigarh police said due to security reasons it was difficult to bring Tara for court hearings. Admitting the plea, the court issued a notice to the prosecution to file a reply in this regard.
Citing the security reasons, the Punjab Police also moved another application seeking that orders be passed for producing Tara before the court through video conferencing. However, the defence strongly opposed the move claiming that it was the right of the accused to be present in the court for the hearing of his case. After hearing the contentions, the court fixed May 3 as the next date of hearing to take a final call on the issue.
Tara was booked for Rulda Singh's murder along with over a dozen suspects including some UK-based Khalistan supporters. The court has already acquitted five persons including Darshan Singh Makaropur, Jagmohan Singh, Daljeet Singh, GurjantSingh and Amarjeet Singh in the case.
Tara was booked for Rulda Singh's murder along with over a dozen suspects including some UK-based Khalistan supporters.
However, the hearing against Jagtar Singh Tara and another Khalistan Tigers Force member Ramandeep Singh Goldy is still pending. While Goldy had been extradited from Malaysia in November 2014, Tara was arrested in Thailand and brought to India in January 2015.
Rulda Singh was shot outside his residence in Patiala on July 28, 2009. He was rushed to the local Rajindra Hospital and from there to the PGIMER, Chandigarh, where he died on August 15, 2009.
The police had initially registered a case against unidentified persons on July 29, 2009 and arrested four persons, but they were let off.
Later in September 2009, the police named Darshan Singh Makaropur, Jagmohan Singh, Daljeet Singh, Gurjant Singh and Amarjeet Singh in the FIR on charges of assisting Rulda Singh’s assailants, who reportedly came here from the UK, opened fired at Rulda and returned to the country. These accused were later placed under arrest.
The police also suspected role of one Paramjit Singh Pamma, who hit the headline in December 2015 after he was detained by the Portuguese police on a red corner alert issued on the request of the Indian government in
Rulda Singh murder case. The police also suspected the role of three other suspects, including Gursharan Bir Singh, Piara Singh Gill and Amritbir Singh, who were given political asylum in the UK. After they were named in the case, the UK police put them under house arrest but were later let off.
An eight-member team of West Midlands Police (WIP) led by detective superintendent George Tracy had visited Punjab in December 2010 and carried out parallel investigations to establish the involvement of the said persons in the case. Later, the suspects were given a clean chit.
Pamma had also been let off by the Portuguese Police, which also blocked the request by the Indian authorities for his extradition on the basis of the clean chit given by the WIP police.
