The Supreme Court on Tuesday allowed transfer of target killing cases of Punjab from Mohali to National Investigation Agency (NIA) court, Patiala House, New Delhi.
Hearing plea of the NIA, the agency which is probing the cases, the apex court also permitted shifting of 11 Sikh youths in the target killing cases, including British national Jagtar Singh alias Jaggi Johal, Hardeep Singh Shera, Dharmendra Gugni and others, to Tihar Jail.
The defence counsel of Jagtar Singh Johal, Jaspal Singh Manjhpur, confirmed the development. Terming it a calculated move by the NIA, Manjhpur said it will put accused life at risk in Tihar Jail. “Tihar authorities do not treat prisoners from minorities communities well. They face threat to life. NIA should explain the reason for not trusting the Punjab jails,” Manjhpur said.
“Senior Advocate Colin Gonsalves was there in the Supreme Court docket to represent the respondents Ramandeep Singh Bagga and Hardeep Singh Shera but the judges listened to him for just thirty seconds only- through which he said that there was no practical authorized floor for allowing the NIA’s petition”, stated Advocate Jaspal Singh Manjhpur.
Manjhpur informed that the NIA had also sought transfer of the accused to Tihar jail earlier, but it was denied by the Mohali NIA court.
A source privy to the development said most of the accused are currently lodged in Nabha jail and will be transferred to Tihar jail soon.
Meanwhile, the next hearing in these cases will be taken up at the NIA court, Mohali, on May 20.
Earlier, in Nov 2017, Punjab Police had arrested 11 people, including Jagtar Singh, Hardeep Singh alias Shera, Ramandeep Singh, Dharmendra Singh Gugni, Anil Kumar, Amaninder Singh, Manpreet Singh, Ravipal, Pahad Singh, Pravesh and Malook Tomar, in different target killing cases, which took place between January 2016 and October 2017 in the state.
Later, Punjab government transferred the cases, including one of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and BJP leader Ravinder Gosai, Pastor Sultan Masih of Ludhiana, Shiv Sena leader Amit Arora, Durga Prasad and Dera Sirsa followers of Khanna—Satpal Kumar and his son— and Ramesh Kumar to the NIA.