Ranjit Cremated; PHHC Issues Notice to Panjab Police over Encounters

On 3 Mar, the autopsy of 19-year-old Ranjit Singh who was shot dead by the police in an alleged encounter on 25 Feb near Purana Shala town, Gurdaspur district was conducted at the Gurdaspur Civil Hospital in the presence of Chief Judicial Magistrate Surekha Dadwal. The autopsy report has been submitted to the local court which also directed telecom companies to preserve the GPS locations and call records of all Panjab police personnel involved in the alleged shootout. While police say Ranjit was killed in retaliatory firing after he shot at cops, his family insists he was framed in the case and shot dead. His mother Sukhjinder Kaur filed a petition in court seeking a judicial enquiry into his death, a videographed post-mortem by an independent medical board, preservation of evidence, and an independent investigation and refusing to cremate him until justice is brought. Additionally, taking sou motto notice of the case, the Punjab and Haryana High Court issued a notice to the Panjab police on 5 Mar and directed the Director General of Police (DGP) to file an affidavit explaining the circumstances of the incident. DGP Gaurav Yadav appeared before the bench through video conference and responded to the court’s queries. The court pointed to similarities between this case and other recent incidents where the accused were allegedly taken for recovery of weapons, attempted to escape, and were subsequently shot in police firing. On 18 Jan another accused in kabaddi (combative South Asian sport) promoter Rana Balachauriya’s murder, Karan Pathak alias Karan Defaulter was shot dead by the Panjab police. While in custody earlier, Pathak complained of chest pain. Three officers loaded him into a van bound for hospital, but dense fog caused a crash into a divider. Taking advantage of the situation, Pathak allegedly ran away for seven hours, acquired a pistol, and while being handcuffed fired at the police ensuing a gunfight that left him dead. Human rights activist Navkiran Singh warns that unchecked encounters have proved very dangerous in Panjab's history. He says, ‘We had fake encounters in the 1980–90s; thousands vanished during counter-insurgency operations.’ Ranjit was cremated on 9 Mar (earlier coverage).