Jaipal Bhullar encounter: SC directs Punjab and Haryana High Court to hear gangster's father's plea for re-autopsy

A vacation bench of Justices Indira Banerjee and M R Shah also directed the Punjab government to make appropriate arrangement to preserve the body, which has been taken to Firozpur in Punjab from Kolkata. The Punjab and Haryana High Court had earlier declined the plea of Bhullar's father for conducting an autopsy of the body, saying that the matter is not under its jurisdiction as the encounter took place in Kolkata.

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New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday (June 18) set aside the order of Punjab and Haryana High Court dismissing the plea filed by slain gangster Jaipal Singh Bhullar's father seeking directions to Punjab government to conduct a second autopsy of his son's body. The apex court also directed the Punjab and Haryana High Court to consider the plea again on June 21.

A vacation bench of Justices Indira Banerjee and M R Shah also directed the Punjab government to make appropriate arrangement to preserve the body, which has been taken to Firozpur in Punjab from Kolkata.

The Punjab and Haryana High Court had earlier declined the plea of Bhullar's father for conducting an autopsy of the body either at PGIMER or AIIMS, New Delhi, or some independent medical institute to ascertain the nature of injuries. The court said that the matter is not under its jurisdiction as the encounter took place in Kolkata.

Jaipal Bhullar and another gangster Jaspreet Singh, involved in killing two policemen recently in Ludhiana, were gunned down by a Kolkata police team in a shootout in the city on June 9 after receiving 'pin-pointed' information from their Punjab counterparts.

During the hearing in the apex court, advocate Ishma Randhawa, appearing for Bhullar's father Bhupinder Singh alleged that it is a fake encounter and the deceased was killed by custodial torture. She contended that Singh has seen the body of Bhullar which has gone blue and bones were broken.

Randhawa said that his father had gone to Kolkata on his own and brought back the body to Firozpur in Punjab.

"I am not seeking a CBI probe into the encounter but all I want is second autopsy to ascertain the fact whether he was killed in custodial torture or not. I have the right to know under Article 21 of the constitution to know how my son was killed," she said. Bhupinder Singh, a retired Punjab police inspector, has alleged that his son was tortured before being gunned down. Earlier on Monday, the Ferozepur deputy commissioner had rejected the request of Bhullar's family for a second post-mortem.