4 cops suspended, booked for youth’s murder

Ludhiana: A day after a youth, who had eloped with a village girl, was found dead under mysterious circumstances with his family members alleging that he was killed in police custody, Khanna police have suspended four policemen and have booked them along with relatives of girl for the alleged murder.
Gurwinder Singh Goldy, 20, was found dead near a water pump in the fields on Wednesday days after he had eloped with a village girl.
The family of the deceased had blocked the Khanna-Malerkotla road, alleging that Gurwinder was killed in police custody.
Meanwhile, Khanna police had lodged a murder case against ASI Karamjit Singh, in-charge Issru police post; ASI Harbhajan Singh; head constable Jaswant Singh; and Punjab home guard jawan Avtar Singh, apart from girl’s relatives Satnam Singh, Rajinder Singh Billu, Ghogi, Sharanjit Singh, Honey and Tota under Sections 302 (murder), 148 (Rioting, armed with deadly weapon) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the IPC.
SSP Gursharandeep Singh said the cops have been sent to police lines and Special Investigation Team (SIT) comprising SP (detective) Jasvir Singh, DSP Deepak Rai and SHO has been constituted to probe the matter. He said they have arrested the father of the girl.
The SSP said they got the post-mortem examination of the deceased done and the report of the same is awaited. He said the viscera has been sent to a Patiala laboratory and they will come to know about the cause of death after getting the reports.
Police officials said the role of cops in the case is under cloud as police have got an audio recording of a cop, allegedly from Issru police, in which he can be heard asking a person how to delete the CCTV recording of a previous day. They added that the person on the other side tells him that one day recording cannot be deleted and instead shows him how to format the CCTV footage.
Reacting to the audio recording going viral, the SSP said they are verifying the same.
Meanwhile, victim’s relative Rajinder Singh, who is a Youth Congress leader at Sahnewal, said he has brought the matter to the notice of halqa incharge Satwinder Kaur Bitti and PA of Khanna MLA Gurkirat Kotli and requested them to give justice to Gurwinder’s family. He added that if need be, they will even knock the doors of the chief minister for action in the matter.
The relative of the deceased said even as the police have booked four cops in the murder case, they have not been arrested till now.
Family members of the deceased had alleged that Gurwinder had an affair with the girl from the village and the couple had eloped on May 5. But they nabbed the next day from Manji Sahib. They claimed while the police sent the girl with her parents, Gurwinder was detained at Issru police post. When they asked about his whereabouts, police had told them that he had escaped from police custody. Later, Gurwinder’s body was found from near a water pump in the fields of village.