Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, July 17: In a first of its kind case in the history of Jammu and Kashmir, an under trial facing murder charges has knocked the doors of the judiciary not for some sort of relief in his favour but seeking fair and time-bound probe into a case wherein he acted as a whistleblower. The only intention of the under trial is to ensure that the influential accused in this particular case are dealt with sternly under the law.
This case, which hogged limelight, came to the fore in the month of June 2012 when the petitioner Ravinder Singh, under trial in a murder case, noticed another under trial Paramjit Singh appearing as a proxy candidate to Rajni Sehgal, the then Superintendent of Central Jail Kot Bhalwal in Masters of Sociology Examination in the IGNOU Special Study Centre at District Jail Ambphalla.
Thereafter, it was found that not only Paramjit Singh even one Kulwant Singh was compelled by Rajni Sehgal and Vinod Sharma, the then Superintendent District Jail, Ambphalla to appear as proxy candidate in the examination.
During further inquiry, it came to fore that during the year 2005 Rajni Sehgal got herself enrolled in Master of Sociology Course and appeared in examination through proxy detainee namely Kulwant Singh in the year 2008 and passed most of the subjects. Thereafter, IGNOU authorities shifted the centre of Rajni Sehgal to IGNOU Centre, University of Jammu but she abstained herself from appearing in the examination during that year and managed the change of centre from Jammu University back to Special Study Centre, District Jail, Ambphalla Jammu.
By the time Rajni Sehgal managed the shifting back of the centre to District Jail, Ambphalla, Kulwant Singh himself got admission as a student in Masters of Sociology. As Kulwant Singh was not in a position to appear on behalf of Rajni Sehgal, she in connivance with Vinod Kumar fixed Paramjit Singh Slathia as an impersonator and he appeared on behalf of Rajni Sehgal during 2012 examination.
Under trial Ravinder Singh could not tolerate all these acts of omission and commission that too by the Superintendents of jail and accordingly on November 7, 2012 filed a complaint before the Chief Judicial Magistrate, Jammu for the registration of FIR into this entire mess created by the nexus of two Jail Superintendents.
The CJM forwarded the complaint to Station House Officer, Police Station Pacca Danga with the direction to verify the allegations and register FIR for investigation in case a cognizable offence is found to have been committed. Accordingly, FIR No.88/2013 dated May 16, 2013 under Section 420, 419, 115, 468, 471, 120-B RPC and 2/5 Prevention of Unfair Means Examination Act, 1987 was registered.
Even the departmental enquiry conducted into the case indicted both the Jail Superintendents Rajni Sehgal and Vinod Kumar. However, no action was taken against the delinquent Superintendents of Jail for the obvious reasons.
Under trial Ravinder Singh, who was the whistleblower in this case, flashed several letters to the Principal Secretary Home Department, Director General of Police, Director General of Prisons Department, SSP Jammu and SHO Police Station Pacca Danga seeking speeding up the investigation but nothing substantial was done for unknown reasons.
“I have faith in rule of law but the way the Pacca Danga Police has proceeded in the matter, I have lost hope of fair investigation and the only ray of hope is the High Court, which can entrust this case to the Crime Branch for a time oriented investigation so that the accused are brought to book as local police has miserably failed to investigate the matter despite the expiry of more than one year”, the petitioner-cum-under trial said in the petition.
Advocate F S Butt, who was appearing for the petitioner before the High Court, drew the attention of Justice Tashi Rabstan towards Apex Court judgment in Vineet Narain and Others Versus Union of India and Others case whereby it was held that when the allegations are against bigwigs/influential people then the court can monitor the investigation in order to instill people’s confidence in rule of law.
On this, Justice Rabstan issued notice to the respondents— Principal Secretary Home Department, Director General of Police, Director General of Prisons Department, SSP Jammu and SHO Police Station Pacca Danga, returnable within four weeks. The High Court also issued directions for filing status of the case in FIR No.88/2013 registered at Police Station Pacca Danga on the next date of hearing.
Follow our WhatsApp channel