CBI Court Awards Five-Yr Jail To Former Moga SSP, Ex-SP

Ex-SHO Raman Kumar Gets 8-Yr Jail, While Then Inspector Amarjit Awarded Six-And-A-Half Year Imprisonment Under The PC Act

- Nikhil Sharma

MOHALI: Eighteen years after the Moga sex scandal made headlines, a special CBI court in Mohali on Monday awarded five years' rigorous imprisonment to former senior superintendent of police Devinder Singh Garcha, 73, and then superintendent of police (headquarters) Paramdip Singh Sandhu, 62.

CBI special judge, Mohali, Rakesh Kumar Gupta pronounced the verdict after convicting Garcha, Sandhu, then Moga city SHO Raman Kumar and then inspector Amarjit Singh, 72, under Sections 13(1)(d) and 13(2) of the PC Act on March 29, 2007.

Raman Kumar, 61, who was also convicted under Section 384 (extortion) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), was awarded eight-year imprisonment by the court, while Amarjit Singh was held guilty under Sections 384 and 511 (attempt to extort) and sentenced to a total of six years and six months in jail.

While the former SSP, who is also an Olympian and member of the Indian hockey team which won gold in the 1980 Moscow Olympics, will pay ₹2 lakh as a fine, the court imposed a penalty of ₹3 lakh on Raman Kumar and ₹2.5 lakh fine on Amarjit Singh.

The CBI court acquitted Barjinder Singh, alias Makhan, the son of former Punjab minister Tota Singh and Sukhraj Singh, of all the charges.

Pleading leniency, Garcha submitted that he is a first-time offender, an asthmatic and diabetic patient. He added that he is also an Olympian.