The Supreme Court on August 11 upheld the conviction of a former jail officer in Punjab for conspiring to help an undertrial prisoner escape from custody [Gurdeep Singh vs. The State of Punjab].
A Bench of Justices PS Narasimha and R Mahadevan affirmed the concurrent findings of the Sessions Court and the Punjab and Haryana High Court, which had convicted the officer in connection with a 2010 attack on police personnel escorting a prisoner to court.
The incident occurred on November 30, 2010, when two head constables were escorting an undertrial prisoner to Talwandi Sabo Court. The officer accompanied them and suggested returning in a private Qualis instead of the police car. Near a village, two persons in the rear of the vehicle threw red chilli powder into the eyes of the escorting officers and attacked them with a knife and a kirpan. Despite the scuffle, the prisoner could not escape since he was handcuffed and chained to one of the head constable's belt.
The injured officers along with the prisoner were taken to a hospital and an FIR was registered. The accused officer was unharmed and later went missing from the scene.
The trial court in 2014 found that he had arranged the private vehicle, ensured the stop at an isolated location, failed to protect the escorts, and absconded after the assault - conduct which, taken together, established his role in the conspiracy. The High Court upheld the verdict in 2023 prompting him to move the Supreme Court.
The top Court after considering the totality of the circumstances - the role of the accused in arranging the private vehicle, occupying the front seat, the presence of unidentified persons in the vehicle, the isolated stop, the attack, his lack of injury, and his disappearance - concluded that there was an established concert of action between him and the attackers.
It reiterated that such offences are seldom proved by direct evidence and must usually be established through inferences drawn from the conduct of the accused and surrounding circumstances.
The bench also underscored the heightened responsibility of custodial officers and the aggravated breach of trust involved.
“As a public servant entrusted with safeguarding the rule of law and the custody of prisoners, he did not merely default in his duties – he actively undermined the justice system. When public functionaries betray the institutional trust, the consequences are profound and far-reaching. In a constitutional democracy governed by the rule of law, custodial officers must be held to the highest standards of integrity. Any deviation amounts not only to legal delinquency, but to a grave institutional and moral breach,” the bench held.
Finding no reason to reduce the sentence, the Court dismissed the appeal and directed that the officer be taken into custody immediately to serve the remainder of his sentence.
The accused was represented by M/S Delhi Law Chambers along with advocates AK Walia and Debjani Das Purkayastha.
The State was represented by advocates Karan Sharma, Mohit Siwach and Chetan Manchanda.
[Read Judgment]