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The Punjab-Haryana High Court has summoned the Punjab Director General of Police (DGP), after taking suo-moto cognisance in the case involving a 19-year-old boy, named Ranjit Singh, who was allegedly killed in an encounter in Gurdaspur on February 23.
Singh was arrested in connection with the murder of ASI Gurnam Singh and Home Guard Ashok Kumar. According to police, while he was being brought to the station, the police van flipped, following which he ran away with a bike and revolver. He was soon caught by the police but managed to flee again, and the police encountered him. The victim's family has filed a petition in the High Court against the allegedly "fake encounter," arguing for his innocence, stating that the police "murdered" Singh. Speaking on the matter, the counsel for the victim has said that the murder case of the police officers required an investigation by an independent agency. They have requested the detailed call records, GPS locations of involved police officers, and CCTV footage. They have urged for an independent probe into the case, alleging that the police and medical records are both controlled by the state government. Advocate Sonu Giri said that the local police did not provide adequate information on the case to the victim's family, following which they filed the petition. "A 19-year-old boy was killed in a fake encounter. The local police have gathered a lot of information in their investigation so far, but they haven't yet told the parents many things they should have... The parents weren't satisfied, so we had to file a petition in the High Court. Our only request is that a special team like the CBI or the NIA investigate this matter apart from the police...," he told ANI. Advocate Ravi Joshi recognised the matter of the police officer's murder as that of "national security" and questioned the state agencies' rationale in the matter. "An independent agency like NIA should be involved in any case where ISI is mentioned... This is a matter of national security... The state agencies will obviously not take action against their own personnel. Even the medical report was controlled by the state government... We have approached the High Court," he said. Meanwhile, Advocate Ravideep Badyal said that the court, while accepting their requests, has denied a post-mortem at PGI, citing jurisdictional issues. "... We requested that the call detail records and GPS locations of the police officers be saved, and attempts be made to preserve their CCTV footage... The Court has provided us relief and accepted our requests... They have denied our request for a post-mortem at PGI due to a jurisdiction issue... We have filed a petition for an independent investigation...," he said. (ANI)
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