Former Punjab SSP Gurmeet Singh Randhawa Sentenced to 7 Years in 34-Year-Old Kidnapping Case

November 12, 2026

Mohali: Former Punjab Police SSP Gurmeet Singh Randhawa has been sentenced to 7 years in prison by a special CBI court in Mohali. He was convicted in the 1992 kidnapping and disappearance of Ludhiana transporter Amrik Singh Sakri. The court delivered its verdict on November 11 in this nearly 34-year-old case.

The court sentenced Randhawa to 5 years in prison and a fine of ₹50,000 under Section 365 of the Indian Penal Code, and 2 years in prison and a fine of ₹25,000 under Section 120-B. All sentences will run concurrently. Randhawa was presented in court via video conferencing.

It is noteworthy that at the time of the kidnapping, Gurmeet Singh Randhawa was posted as DSP. He was promoted to SSP during the trial. The main accused in the kidnapping plot in this case was the then-SSP, Ajit Singh Sandhu, who died during the trial. Three other accused policemen from the police team that carried out the kidnapping have also died.

Transporter abducted from a wedding ceremony in 1992, no trace found afterward

Amrik Singh was a transporter from Sakri, Ludhiana. On November 25, 1992, he had arrived at Hotel Amaltas to attend his brother-in-law’s daughter’s wedding. A team of Tarn Taran police took him away. He has not been heard from since.

According to the CBI investigation, information about Amrik Singh’s detention was sent via telegram to senior officials at the time. Several senior officials, including the then Chief Minister Beant Singh, were contacted to secure his release, but to no avail.

Amrik Singh’s nephew, Dilbag Singh, also alleged that six police officers, including then-SSP Ajit Singh Sandhu and DSP Gurmeet Singh Randhawa, had kidnapped him.

According to Dilbag Singh, he met Amrik Singh in Tarn Taran the next day. However, the DSP who arranged the meeting was later threatened.

Wife files petition in Supreme Court, government declares him dead

Following no trace of Amrik Singh, his wife approached the Supreme Court in 1996. She filed a habeas corpus petition, demanding her husband’s presence before the court.

During the hearing, the state government informed the Supreme Court that Amrik Singh had died. The government also presented advertisements related to his funeral to the court. However, the family did not accept this claim.

Meanwhile, the Supreme Court ordered a CBI investigation into cases of funerals conducted by the Punjab Police under the pretext of declaring bodies as unidentified and unclaimed. The Amrik Singh case was also included in the scope of this investigation.

CBI files chargesheet against 5 policemen

The CBI initiated a preliminary investigation into the case in January 1999. Subsequently, a regular case was registered in February 2000 on charges of kidnapping, illegal detention, falsification of government records, and criminal conspiracy.

In 2001, the CBI filed a chargesheet against five police officers. These included the then DSP (D) Tarn Taran, Gurmeet Singh Randhawa, the then SHO, Inspector Suba Singh, SI Surinder Singh, Constable Parminderjit Singh alias Babbu, and ASI Jaswant Singh.

The chargesheet named the then SSP, Ajit Singh Sandhu, as the main accused in the kidnapping plot. However, he died during the investigation.

Wedding photos and videos found missing from court records

During the trial of this case in 2022, several crucial pieces of evidence presented by the CBI in court were found missing from the records. These included witness statements, photographs and videos of the wedding ceremony, and the vehicle logbooks of the accused police officers.

Following this, the case records were reconstructed on the High Court’s order.

According to lawyers Sarabjit Singh, Jagjit Singh, and Pushpinder Singh Natt, representing the victim’s family, the case records were made to disappear to avoid legal action.

Former SSP sentenced to 7 years in prison, security guard acquitted

The special CBI court in Mohali finally delivered its verdict in this case that had dragged on for nearly 34 years. Special Judge Dinesh Kumar Wadhwa’s court convicted former SSP Gurmeet Singh Randhawa of kidnapping and sentenced him to a total of 7 years in prison.

His security guard, Parminderjit Singh, was acquitted, given the benefit of the doubt due to a lack of sufficient evidence.

With this verdict, the family of Ludhiana transporter Amrik Singh, who went missing in 1992, received a significant decision in their legal battle after nearly three and a half decades.