Hoshiarpur: A significant development has emerged in the high-profile murder case of human rights activist Jaswant Singh Khalra, as authorities from the Nabha Open Agricultural Jail have directed the Hoshiarpur Police to verify the whereabouts of convicted former Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Jaspal Singh. The former police official, who was sentenced to life imprisonment for his involvement in the abduction and murder of Khalra, has been out on bail since May 2023 under specific judicial orders, though his final sentence remission remains undecided.
The decades-old case has returned to the spotlight amid ongoing public discourse surrounding the film titled ‘Sutlej’. Legal records indicate that Jaspal Singh was released from the Nabha Open Agricultural Jail in May 2023 upon executing a personal bail bond of one lakh rupees. His release was executed in accordance with a High Court ruling which dictates that if the state governor does not take a final decision on a government-recommended premature release proposal within three months, the prisoner can be released on bail pending that final executive decision.
The Punjab government had originally forwarded a proposal for the remission of Jaspal Singh’s life sentence in September 2022. Because the Governor has yet to deliver a definitive directive on the matter, Patiala Chief Judicial Magistrate Navdeep Kaur Gill had subsequently granted bail to the former cop based on the High Court’s established framework.
This is not the first instance where Jaspal Singh’s detention status has faced legal complexities. Back in 2019, the High Court had granted him parole, but his actual release was blocked due to a separate sentence linked to an older case registered under FIR 81/1996 at the Tanda police station. In response to his continued confinement at that time, he had filed a habeas corpus petition in the High Court, which was ultimately withdrawn. The latest administrative push by the Nabha jail management asking the Hoshiarpur police to officially locate and track the former official has renewed intense scrutiny over the state’s legal proceedings involving the landmark human rights case.
