When Kunwar Pal Singh took off for his one-month leave back on November 15th, his fellow colleagues at Bijnor’s Badhapur police station had asked him to bring sweets from his hometown. But things got conspicuous when he didn’t come back from his leave for the next five months.
It took the Uttar Pradesh police five months to realise that the 55-year-old constable had been one of the convicts of the 1987 Hashimpura massacre.
The massacre which took place on May 22, 1987, was an incident of mass murder where 42 Muslims were shot dead by 15 armed men. The convicts had later dropped the dead bodies into a near irrigation canal.
A hearing which took place in the Delhi High Court on December 15th last year sentenced the convicts to lifetime prison for the “remaining of their natural lives”.
In its verdict, the judges announced that the massacre was a case of “targeted killings of persons belonging to one minority community.”
According to sources, three and a half months after Singh failed to join on duty, the police station suspended him on the grounds of dereliction of duty. However, a departmental inquiry was set up to trace his whereabouts.
After finding out about Singh’s conviction, officials of the Badhapur police station finally terminated his service.
The Bijnor Superintendent of Police told sources, “Awarded life imprisonment by Delhi High Court, Singh surrendered himself before a judge in Tis Hazari court and is currently lodged in Tihar Jail.”
Singh’s punishment was long overdue. Finally, justice has been served.