CHANDIGARH, Punjab—Akali politician Virsa Singh Valtoha, who was renowned for pressurizing police cops to indict his rivals in fake cases in the Khemkaran constituency before the 2017 assembly polls, has been trapped in a legal mesh by the Congress led Punjab government. A 36 years old case of murdering a Patti based doctor named Dr. Sudarshan Kumar Trehan has been reopened against him in which the police has presented a challan against him in the Patti Court on February 1.
It is learnt that the challan was presented under sections 302 of the IPC (murder), 307 (attempt to murder), 452 (house trespass), 34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention). The court has fixed the next hearing on March 13.
Dr. Sudarshan Kumar Trehan was killed on September 30, 1983 when he was treating a patient in his clinic. Subsequently, a case was registered against unknown killers at Patti, now part of the district Tarn Taran, Punjab.
Later, the police had succeeded in arresting one Hardev Singh, who had confessed that he along with Valtoha and one Baldev Singh were the key men behind Trehan’s murder. On the basis of his confession, Valtoha was named as an accused.
The police, on the basis of false submissions, got Valtoha’s arrest warrants issued and later, the court ordered them to comply with Section 82 of the CrPC to set in motion the legal procedure before declaring an absconding accused a proclaimed offender.
Valtoha got a bail in the case in February 1991. However, the police never presented a supplementary challan against him. The other two accused in the case were acquitted in November 1990.
Based on a report submitted by the three-member special investigation team led by SP (Traffic), Tarn Taran, Jaswant Kaur, Valtoha was summoned twice, but the Akali leader claimed he had been acquitted in the case. However, Valtoha failed to produce court orders. The police and court also confirmed that no supplementary challan was presented against him.
