Patiala’s district court on Friday acquitted all the five accused in the high profile case of assassination of Rulda Singh who was the chief of the Rashtriya Sikh Sangat, which is an affiliate of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). The trial of two top militants Jagtar Singh Tara and Ramandeep Singh alias Goldy, who were extradited from other countries is yet to begin.
The Additional District and Sessions Judge, Nirbhau Singh Gill, handed down the judgement in the case in which 54 witnesses were presented and examined. Those who were acquitted included Darshan Singh, Jagmohan Singh, Gurjant Singh, Amarjit Singh and Daljit Singh. The police are yet to submit a supplementary challan for proceedings against Tara, who was arrested in Thailand. The case against Goldy is scheduled to come for hearing on March 9.
Rulda Singh was critically injured when some persons assaulted him with firearms late evening on July 28, 2009, at his residence in Patiala city. He was rushed to PGI in Chandigarh, where
he succumbed to his injuries on August 15, 2009. At least half a dozen persons were earlier arrested and subsequently discharged by the court as the prosecution could not establish their involvement. At a later stage, the police claimed to have solved the case by arresting the five from Patiala, Fatehgarh Sahib, Chandigarh, Kurukshetra and Mumbai.
The defense counsel, Brijinder Singh Sodhi said that there were major contradictions in the witness accounts presented by the prosecution. Even the forensic science laboratory that examined the weapons, empty shells and bullet pellets did not match with the claims of the investigation. The opinion recorded by different doctors, who attended on Mr Rulda Singh, were contrary to the prosecution’s case.
Mr. Sodhi said that while Mr Rulda Singh’s son, Rajinder Singh had reported to the police that two or three unidentified non-turbaned persons had fired at his father that evening. However, all the five accused were turbaned Sikhs, who sported long hair. The police had also claimed that Jagtar Singh Tara had given training to Jagmohan Singh in the case, but could not establish if the latter had actually used the fire arm. The weapon, which was supposedly recovered from the accused, was not even made case property.
