Amritsar, July 8 The Punjab Human Rights Organisation (PHRO) has accused a retired assistant sub-inspector (ASI) of threatening and trying to influence the witnesses in the mass suicide case in which five members of a family had ended their lives in October 2004. The organisation said ASI Harbhajan Singh had been contacting the witnesses and pressurising them to depose in favor of former DIG Kultar Singh (the then SSP) and serving DSP Hardev Singh (the then SHO) against whom the court had framed charges in May 2016. In a letter to Police Commissioner SS Srivastav, PHRO’s principal investigator Sarabjit Singh Verka urged him to get the matter inquired and take appropriate measures. Srivastava said the matter was being investigated and appropriate action would be taken. On the other hand, Harbhajan Singh refuted the charges. He said he had not contacted any witness. Hardeep Singh, his wife Romi, their children Imu and Sonu, and Hardeep’s mother had committed suicide by consuming poison in October 2004. In the suicide note and a message scribbled on a wall of their house, they had accused their relatives and the then SSP Kultar Singh of extortion and criminal intimidation that forced them to take the extreme step. The charges were framed under Sections 306 (abetment to suicide), 388 (extortion) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code against Kultar Singh and four relatives of the deceased — Sabreen, Mohinder, Parminder Kaur and Palwinderpal Singh in May 2016. Harbhajan Singh was a witness from the police side. He was among the first police officials who had entered the room. It was alleged that he removed the message written on the wall in which Kultar Singh and Hardev Singh had been held responsible. The family had ended life as its relatives and cops allegedly extorted over Rs 10 lakh from Hardeep as they claimed to have seen the latter committing some “crime” and had been threatening to get him imprisoned.

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