Gurdaspur encounter: Day after court relief, slain teen’s kin consent to autopsy

Gurdaspur: A day after the court of Gurdaspur judicial magistrate issued a slew of directions in connection with the alleged Feb 26 police encounter of 19-year-old Ranjit Singh, his family consented to the postmortem on Tuesday.Ranjit was one of three suspects in the Feb 21 killing of two cops at a police post in Adhian village, just 1km from the Pakistan border. While the double murder sparked statewide outrage, the encounter in the early hours of Feb 26 drew sharp scrutiny. His family later moved the district court, which passed several orders on Monday.Dilbagh Singh, father of one of the two suspects in police custody, confirmed that the postmortem was conducted during the day. At the family's request, the body was shown to relatives before the procedure. A team of doctors and lawyers was present at the hospital. Heavy police deployment was in place, with senior officers at the spot.Dibagh's son, Dilawar Singh, was arrested on the day when Ranjit was nabbed by the police, Feb 25. The third suspect, Inderjit Singh, was arrested on Feb 27.On Monday, the magistrate ordered preservation of CCTV footage from the encounter site, along with GPS data, call detail records and other electronic evidence of the policemen involved.The court also directed the senior medical officer of Gurdaspur Civil Hospital to form a board to examine injuries of CIA in-charge Gurmeet Singh to ascertain whether he was fired upon or if the bullet injury was self-inflicted.Ranjit's mother, Sukhjinder Kaur, had sought an autopsy by a board from PGIMER or another government medical college of repute. The court further directed police officials named in her plea — including the Gurdaspur SSP and SHOs concerned — to furnish their phone numbers to the investigating officer and the telecom company.MSID:: 128973503 413 |