{
 "record_id": "CW-2010-0016",
 "status": "current",
 "merged_id": "CWC-0715",
 "alias_merged_ids": [],
 "display_title": "Mehal Kalan Police Sub-Inspector (SHO) vs State of Punjab",
 "display_title_redacted": "Mehal Kalan Police Sub-Inspector (SHO) vs State of Punjab",
 "state": "Punjab",
 "district": "Barnala",
 "district_at_time": "Sangrur",
 "city_town": "Mehal Kalan",
 "police_station_or_unit": "Police Station Mehal Kalan",
 "court": "Punjab and Haryana High Court",
 "court_as_verified": "Punjab and Haryana High Court",
 "bench": null,
 "case_title": "Mehal Kalan Police Sub-Inspector (SHO) vs State of Punjab",
 "case_number": "Crl. Appeal No.558-SB of 1999",
 "citation": null,
 "judges": [
  "Jora Singh"
 ],
 "judgment_date": "2010-08-10",
 "date_precision": "day",
 "judgment_year": 2010,
 "incident_date": "1995-07-31",
 "incident_year": 1995,
 "category": "Custodial death",
 "admin_category": "brutality",
 "admin_subcategory": "custodial_death",
 "subcategory": "custodial_death",
 "subcategory_display": "custodial death",
 "protest_override_heuristic": false,
 "outcome_type": "conviction_upheld",
 "sections": [
  "IPC 304 Part II"
 ],
 "officers": [
  {
   "name": null,
   "rank": "Sub-Inspector (SHO)",
   "unit": "Police Station Mehal Kalan",
   "publish_grade": "unnamed",
   "gate_reasons": [
    "ledger:no_row",
    "key2:no_row"
   ],
   "ledger_role": null,
   "key2": null,
   "key2_agy": null,
   "key2_claude": null,
   "key2_union": null,
   "key2_gemapi": null,
   "key2_openrouter": null,
   "key2_gpt56": null,
   "grok": null,
   "jev_risk": null,
   "jev_p_culpable": null,
   "key2_gpt": null,
   "later_outcome": null,
   "name_public": null,
   "display": "Sub-Inspector (SHO), Police Station Mehal Kalan"
  }
 ],
 "officer_count": 1,
 "victims": [
  {
   "age": null,
   "gender": "male",
   "name": null,
   "descriptor": "Mehal Kalan man"
  }
 ],
 "victims_redacted": null,
 "anonymised": false,
 "victim_count": 1,
 "sentence_type": "imprisonment",
 "sentence_max_years": 1,
 "compensation_inr": null,
 "force": "state_police",
 "primary_source_url": "https://indiankanoon.org/doc/39001431/",
 "secondary_sources": [],
 "summary": "The judgment of the Punjab and Haryana High Court records the following account. Vegetable seller a Mehal Kalan man, wanted in a murder FIR, was arrested on 31 July 1995 by SHO and lodged in the Mehal Kalan lock-up at 6:30 p.m.; police claimed he suffered fits at 7 p.m. and died en route to hospital, but the post-mortem showed 15 injuries including testicle injuries and electric-shock marks, and the body was cremated the same night. The trial court convicted the SHO under Section 304 Part-II IPC (1 year RI, Rs.10,000 fine) and acquitted three co-accused. The High Court held a Mehal Kalan man died an unnatural death within about 30 minutes of detention due to torture, dismissed the appeal, and refused probation, observing release would instigate police torture of innocents. Date per judgment's internal header 10.8.2010 (Kanoon title says 10 Sept 2010). Matters not addressed in the cited judgment text are not recorded here.",
 "summary_verified": "Vegetable seller a Mehal Kalan man, wanted in a murder FIR, was arrested on 31 July 1995 by SHO and lodged in the Mehal Kalan lock-up at 6:30 p.m.; police claimed he suffered fits at 7 p.m. and died en route to hospital, but the post-mortem showed 15 injuries including testicle injuries and electric-shock marks, and the body was cremated the same night. The trial court convicted the SHO under Section 304 Part-II IPC (1 year RI, Rs.10,000 fine) and acquitted three co-accused. The High Court held a Mehal Kalan man died an unnatural death within about 30 minutes of detention due to torture, dismissed the appeal, and refused probation, observing release would instigate police torture of innocents. Date per judgment's internal header 10.8.2010 (Kanoon title says 10 Sept 2010).",
 "court_quote": "Police officials are the custodial of law. They are to maintain law and order and are not to violate the same.",
 "court_quote_para": null,
 "confidence": "high",
 "verdict": "accept",
 "verdict_note": "SHO's s.304-II conviction for lock-up torture death upheld (1y RI); probation refused.",
 "verification_status": "V2",
 "verification_badge": "V2 · Externally reported",
 "tier_badge": "Externally reported",
 "tier": "Tier A — Externally reported or officially recorded",
 "tier_history": [
  "Tier A — Externally reported or officially recorded"
 ],
 "allegations": [
  {
   "category": "Custodial death",
   "primary": true,
   "position": "Material fact supported",
   "position_explainer": "Reliable material supports a specifically documented fact relevant to that allegation, not necessarily the full allegation, causation, intent, unlawfulness, or responsibility.",
   "official_finding_relation": "supports allegation"
  }
 ],
 "institutional_response": [
  {
   "date": null,
   "action_type": "Conviction",
   "status": "Concluded",
   "authority": "Trial court (as recorded in the Punjab and Haryana High Court judgment)",
   "independence": "External",
   "legal_effect": "Binding",
   "description": "The trial court convicted the accused police personnel, as recorded in the Punjab and Haryana High Court judgment.",
   "disposition": "Conviction · Supports allegation",
   "source": "Crl. Appeal No.558-SB of 1999",
   "recheck": "Not yet re-checked."
  },
  {
   "date": "2010-08-10",
   "action_type": "Order issued",
   "status": "Concluded",
   "authority": "Punjab and Haryana High Court",
   "independence": "External",
   "legal_effect": "Binding",
   "description": "The Punjab and Haryana High Court dismissed the appeal and upheld the convictions of police personnel.",
   "disposition": "Conviction · Supports allegation (appellate affirmance; trial conviction separate card)",
   "source": "Crl. Appeal No.558-SB of 1999",
   "recheck": "Not yet re-checked."
  }
 ],
 "later_proceedings": [],
 "final_outcome_url": null,
 "followup_history": [
  {
   "date": "2026-09-19",
   "scope": "Round-8 full re-verification: published record re-checked against the judgment text (outcome, officers, quote, key facts) plus methodology-compliance pass",
   "method": "skills-guided adversarial re-verification of the published record against the judgment text (reverify/t1-*/adversarial-8.jsonl)",
   "result": "holds",
   "corrections_applied": []
  }
 ],
 "followup_status": "checked",
 "last_checked": "2026-09-19",
 "link_checked_per_url": [
  {
   "url": "https://indiankanoon.org/doc/39001431/",
   "link_checked": null
  }
 ],
 "source_assessment": {
  "established": null,
  "basis": null
 },
 "v3_basis": null,
 "publication_basis": null,
 "reviews": [],
 "retracted": {
  "is_retracted": false
 },
 "fidelity_checked": false,
 "verified_by": [
  "chunk-50"
 ],
 "merged_case_id": "GAP8-001",
 "officers_named_public": 0,
 "record_flag": null,
 "service": "police",
 "watch": "babuwatch"
}