Khushwinder Singh, alias Khusho, of Fatehgarh Sahib was sentenced to death for killing four members of a family (left to right) – Kulwant Singh, Harjeet Kaur, Ramandeep Kaur and Arvinder Singh
Following the conviction and death sentence of Khushwinder Singh, alias Khusho, of Fatehgarh Sahib in connection with the murder of four members of a family in 2004, Patiala police have decided to recommend the case for inclusion in the curriculum of investigation skills being taught at the Punjab Police Academy (PPA) in Phillaur.
Khushwinder was sentenced to death for killing four members of a family – Kulwant Singh, Harjeet Kaur, Ramandeep Kaur and Arvinder Singh – by a special CBI court in Mohali on Tuesday. It was the Patiala police, which interrogated Khushwinder in connection with the murder of six persons in 2012 when he also confessed to his involvement in the killing of the four in 2004. In connection with the murder of six persons in 2012, Khushwinder was convicted and sentenced to death in 2013.
The investigation into the killing of four members of a family by that time had been transferred to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which had filed a closure report in the 2004 case saying the accused could not be traced.
It was Punjab Police, which later informed CBI about the involvement of Khushwinder in the 2004 killings and the agency reopened the investigation.
Patiala Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Mandeep Singh Sidhu, who interrogated Khushwinder in 2012 when he killed six members of another family, said, “I decided to recommend this case as a case study to senior officers to include it in the PPA curriculum, Phillaur. The man was convicted on the basis of strong evidence, including circumstantial. We had built such a strong watertight case against him that his mercy pleas against his death sentence were rejected by the Punjab and Haryana High Court in 2014.
Though the case was traced after one woman Jasmine Kaur survived after falling into the Bhakra canal, police worked hard to build a strong case against Khusho and during the investigation of that case, he confessed to the crime he had committed in 2004.”
The SSP said, “I still remember that we hired five divers to fish out the bodies. But they failed to locate the bodies after struggling for two days. We were struggling to get concrete evidence to ensure death sentence for Khusho. In connection with the murder of six persons in 2012, Khusho was convicted in March 2013.”
He added, “Since we are asked to recommend such rare cases which could be taught at the police academy in Phillaur, I am going to recommend it shortly after consulting my senior officers.”
SSP Sidhu further stated that when he was interrogating Khusho, then Fatehgarh Sahib DC, Yashvir Mahajan, requested him to allow him to speak to Khusho once.
“I feel it is one of the rare cases when a DC asks for permission to speak to a murder accused. Actually everyone was stunned. But the DC just wanted to speak to Khusho to know his mentality. So, the DC spoke to Khusho for about half an hour,” recalled Sidhu.