Gurdaspur-Senior Congress leader and MLA from Bholath, Sukhpal Singh Khaira, today visited the bereaved family of 19 year old Ranjit Singh at village Adian (District Gurdaspur) to express solidarity with his grieving mother and relatives, following what he termed a cold-blooded, stage-managed fake encounter by the Punjab Police.
Khaira said that the killing of Ranjit Singh is the 42nd doubtful encounter during the regime of the Bhagwant Mann–led AAP government, where the so-called “encounters” follow a predictable script the victim is killed, while the police suffer only minor or self-inflicted injuries.
Ranjit Singh, Khaira pointed out, was picked up from his home at around 4:00 pm on Tuesday, in full view of his family members and villagers.
“If Ranjit was guilty, would he be calmly waiting at home for the police to arrest him?” Khaira asked, adding that the young boy had no criminal record and was known as a disciplined and law-abiding youth.
Raising serious questions over the police version, Khaira said:
“If the police had nothing to hide, why were all DVRs seized and CCTV cameras in the village broken at around 10 pm the same night?”
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He further questioned the official narrative:
“If the police jeep overturned, why were only policemen injured and not Ranjit Singh, who was allegedly handcuffed? How did a handcuffed youth escape custody in the pitch dark after 3 am? From where did he arrange a motorcycle and a weapon under such circumstances?”
Khaira also rejected the claim branding the deceased as an “ISI agent.”
“If Ranjit was such a dangerous operative, why was he being transported in a single police vehicle, without adequate force, and that too in the middle of the night?” he asked.
Calling out the exaggerated threat narrative, Khaira said:
“On one hand, we are told that ISI supplies weapons, drugs, and money and targets vital installations of India. On the other hand, we are expected to believe that the killing of a Home Guard jawan and an ASI could destabilize a powerful nation like India. This argument is absurd and insulting to national institutions.”
He reminded that the scripted story of police encounters remains unchanged since the 1980s and 1990s, when Punjab witnessed rampant fake encounters, many of which were later exposed.
Khaira emphasized that this incident is not an isolated case but part of a disturbing pattern of police brutality under the present regime including the merciless lathi charge on BKU Ugrahan farmers, custodial torture of Charanjit Singh, and the illegal demolition of homes of opposition leaders, besides the registration of false cases against anyone who dares to challenge the ruling dispensation.
“Punjab has effectively been converted into a Police State. If the police are free to indulge in extra judicial killings, then the government might as well dismantle the criminal justice system, shut down courts, and formally authorize the police to decide who lives and who dies,” Khaira said.
Khaira urged the Chief Justice of India and the Chief Justice of the Punjab & Haryana High Court to take suo-motu cognizance of this shocking incident and order an independent investigation, either by a sitting/retired High Court judge or by the CBI, to ensure justice for the victim’s family.