Death rap for one, 6 freed in Longowal assassination

Yogindra Mohan Posted: Tue Aug 04 1998 IST

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PATIALA, AUG 3: Handing down the death sentence to accused Gian Singh in what he described as the rarest of the rare Sant Harchand Singh Longowal assassination case, Additional Judge of the designated court B C Rajput let off the six others rejecting the prosecution contention that their confessional statements were voluntary and true and pointing out various procedural errors in recording their statements which rendered them inadmissible as evidence. The murder of Sant Longowal being one of the rarest of rare cases, it would serve the ends of justice if capital punishment is imposed, observed Rajput in his judgment awarding death sentence to Gian Singh, who was convicted last month. The murder of Sant Longowal was cruel, brutal, inhuman, gruesome, cold-blooded, heinous and atrocious. So much so, even innocent and unarmed persons were attacked by the accused and his accomplice without any provocation. The crime was committed in an organised manner, the Additional Judge stated in his 115-page judgmentin the case. Sant Longowal was shot dead in the Akal Parkash Gurdwara at Sherpur in Sangrur District, on August 20. 1985. He had gone there to address an Istri Akali Dal conference. While two of the assailants, Gian Singh and Harvinder Singh alias Billa were overpowered and arrested on the spot along with their weapons, the third accused Jarnail Singh who too was armed with a revolver, managed to escape. Six youths - Darshan Singh alias Khalsa, Nirmal Singh, Jasbir Singh, Charanjit Singh alias Preet, Birinder Pal Singh alias Sunny and Gurmail Singh alias Dr Gurmail Singh - were acquitted in the case while Gian Singh was sentenced to death by Rajput. The six were acquitted and let off on July 18 from the maximum security Nabha Jail while Gian Singh was awarded death sentence on July 27. The most material evidence produced by the prosecution against the six youths let off by the court, were their confessional statements before the judicial magistrate, first class, Dhuri. The designated judge rejectedthe prosecution view that the confessional statements were voluntary and true. He pointed out several errors committed by Judicial Magistrate SS Hundal while recording the confessional statements. For example, the magistrate committed the grave error in the matter of administering oath to the accused at the time of recording of the judicial confessions. When the confession is recorded on oath, it becomes inadmissible in evidence.

It took the case 12 years and 11 months to be decided during the course of which about a dozen judges handling the case were transferred. The Supreme Court had stayed proceedings in the case in 1989 after the CBI moved an application seeking transfer of the case outside Punjab. The proceedings remained suspended till 1995 when the CBI withdrew the transfer application. The judgment says, It was not a murder of Sant Harchand Singh Longowal as a person but also a murder of democracy and peace-loving forces. What the Sant did was to bring peace to Punjab and for that purpose,he signed the Punjab accord. He was not to be benefited individually by signing the Punjab accord. The amity between the Sikhs and the Hindus had already been destroyed in Punjab and it was an effort of the then president of the Shriomani Akali Dal to restore communal harmony and good relations between the two communities. In a democracy like ours, there is no place for militancy. Even if there is difference of opinion and views, there are ways and means to solve the problem. In my view, the crime committed by the accused along with others is uncommon. Sant Longowal ended his speech at the conference at 5.30 p.m. on the fateful day. As he was thanking the audience for having attended the conference, three Sikh youths, namely accused Gian Singh, Harvinder Singh alias Billa (now dead) and Jarnail Singh started firing at the Sant who fell down after being hit by the shots fired by the accused. Some other persons who had come to attend the conference, were also injured in the firing. Meanwhile, the bodyguardof Sant Longowal, standing by his side, opened fire at the culprits. Gian Singh and Harvinder Singh alias Billa were ultimately overpowered along with their weapons -.455 bore revolvers - at the spot by the police officers present on duty. Both the weapons were seized. The third accused Jarnail Singh managed to escape along with his revolver. Sant Longowal died in the Civil Hospital, Sangrur, at 8.40 p.m. the same day. Jagmail Singh, who was injured in the shooting, died on way to the Civil Hospital, Dhuri. Rajdev Singh Khalsa, advocate and former MP, counsel for accused Gian Singh, submitted that Gian Singh in fact did not cause the death of Sant Longowal or Jagmail Singh. It was Harvinder Singh alias Billa who was primarily responsible for causing the murder of the Sant and Jagmail Singh. He submitted that the accused had already undergone imprisonment for 13 years. During the trial, the father and grandparents of the accused had died. He was now left only with his old mother. At the time of his arresthe was 22 and now he was 35 years of age. He had passed his Giani examination in jail. The accused had already suffered due to prolonged police/judicial custody and he deserved the leniency of the court. The judge, however, ruled that even after giving maximum weightage to the mitigating circumstances which spoke in favour of the offender, the nature of the crime and the circumstances of the case revealed that the accused is a menace to the society and this being one of the rarest of rare cases, the accused was being awarded the death sentence.