States » NorthPosted at: Nov 12 2026 12:42PM


Former Punjab SSP gets seven-year sentence in 1992 transporter abduction case

Neeraj Bali
Chandigarh, Nov 12 (UNI) A special CBI court in Mohali on Thursday awarded former Punjab Police Senior Superintendent of Police Gurmeet Singh Randhawa prison terms of five and two years in the 1992 abduction of a Ludhiana-based transporter who has remained missing for nearly 34 years.
The court imposed a five-year sentence and a fine of Rs 50,000 under Section 365 of the Indian Penal Code, relating to kidnapping with intent to secretly and wrongfully confine a person, and a two-year sentence with a fine of Rs 25,000 under Section 120B for criminal conspiracy.
According to the sentencing order, both sentences will run concurrently, making the effective prison term five years. Randhawa appeared before the court through video conferencing.
Special CBI Judge Dinesh Kumar Wadhwa had convicted Randhawa on Wednesday in connection with the disappearance of transporter Amrik Singh Sakri, who was taken away by a Tarn Taran police team from a wedding function at Hotel Amaltas in Ludhiana on November 25, 1992.
Sakri was attending the wedding of his brother-in-law's daughter when police personnel took him away. His whereabouts have remained unknown since then.
Randhawa was serving as a Deputy Superintendent of Police at the time and subsequently rose to the rank of SSP.
According to the CBI investigation, Sakri's family approached senior police officers and then Punjab Chief Minister Beant Singh, seeking information about his detention and demanding his release.
His nephew, Dilbagh Singh, said he had met Sakri in Tarn Taran a day after the abduction but could not trace him subsequently.
In 1996, Sakri's wife approached the Supreme Court through a habeas corpus petition.
During the proceedings, the Punjab government claimed that Sakri had died and submitted advertisements relating to his last rites. The family disputed the claim.
The case subsequently became part of a CBI investigation into allegations of illegal cremations of unidentified bodies by Punjab Police during the militancy period.
The agency began a preliminary inquiry in 1999 and registered a regular case in February 2000. It filed a chargesheet against five police personnel in 2001.
Former Tarn Taran SSP Ajit Singh Sandhu, identified by investigators as an alleged principal conspirator, died during the investigation.
Three other accused police personnel also died before the trial concluded, resulting in the proceedings against them being dropped.
The case faced further delays after crucial judicial records, including witness statements, wedding photographs, video recordings and police vehicle logbooks, were found missing.
The records were subsequently reconstructed following directions from the Punjab and Haryana High Court.
Lawyers representing Sakri's family alleged that the disappearance of the documents was intended to obstruct the legal proceedings.
The court acquitted co-accused constable Parminderjit Singh, granting him the benefit of doubt because of insufficient evidence.
Reacting to Wednesday's conviction, Sakri's family said it had finally received justice after a legal struggle lasting nearly three and a half decades.
The family described the verdict as a "victory of justice", expressing satisfaction over the conviction after years of pursuing the case.
Although the conviction establishes Randhawa's criminal responsibility for the abduction and conspiracy, Sakri's ultimate fate remains unresolved.
UNI NB AAB
Tags: #Former Punjab SSP gets seven-year sentence in 1992 transporter abduction case
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