# Amritsar Man vs State of Punjab and others

HTML version: [https://datalibertarian.in/babuwatch/incident/CW-2025-0005](https://datalibertarian.in/babuwatch/incident/CW-2025-0005)

## Report card

By judgment dated 20 May 2025 in CRM-M-12183-2016, the Punjab and Haryana High Court (Coram: Harpreet Singh Brar, J.) returned findings adverse to 2 police personnel, namely: Head Constable, Police Station Cantonment, Amritsar; Head Constable, Police Station Cantonment, Amritsar, and directed payment of compensation of Rs 15 lakh (Rs 15,00,000).

- Register number: PB 02 CW 0016
- Case reference: CRM-M-12183-2016 / 2025:PHHC:068484
- Court and date: Punjab and Haryana High Court (Coram: Harpreet Singh Brar, J.), 20 May 2025
- Officer(s) at the material time: Head Constable, Police Station Cantonment, Amritsar; Head Constable, Police Station Cantonment, Amritsar
- Present service status: Not ascertained from the cited sources.
- Provisions invoked: Article 21 of the Constitution of India; Section 304 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860; Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860; Section 482 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973
- Finding of the Court (extract): “Allowing the act of respondent No.5 to go unchecked would effectively mean validating a death sentence, passed not in line with the due process of law, but by the law enforcement agency donning the role of the judge, jury and …” (at para 10)
- Verdict, sentence and quantum: Adverse finding + compensation. Sentence: compensation only. Compensation: Rs 15 lakh (Rs 15,00,000).
- Present status of the proceedings: The judgment is recent and may be subject to appeal; the pendency of an appeal is not a finding.
- Source orders: [Judgment / order (primary source)](https://www.livelaw.in/pdf_upload/crm-m12183201620052025finalorder-601232.pdf); [Permanent link to this record](https://datalibertarian.in/babuwatch/incident/CW-2025-0005)

**Record:** CW-2025-0005 (compiler id CWC-0299); case SWFAKEEN-015; aliases: CWC-0606
**Title:** Amritsar Man vs State of Punjab and others
**Court:** Punjab and Haryana High Court; judges: Harpreet Singh Brar
**Case number / citation:** CRM-M-12183-2016 / 2025:PHHC:068484
**Judgment:** 2025-05-20 (2025, day precision)
**Incident date:** 2013-05-23 (2013)
**Place:** Amritsar, Punjab; city town: Amritsar; police station or unit: Police Station Cantonment, Amritsar; force: state_police
**Category:** Violence & unlawful detention
**Sub-category:** fake encounter extrajudicial killing
**Outcome:** Adverse finding + compensation (adverse_finding_compensation)
**Sections:** Article 21; IPC 304; IPC 302; CrPC 482
**Officers (gated display forms):** Head Constable, Police Station Cantonment, Amritsar; Head Constable, Police Station Cantonment, Amritsar (2 in record)
**Victims:** Amritsar man, age 22 (1 in record)
**Sentence / compensation:** compensation only; Rs 15 lakh (Rs 15,00,000)
**Sentence type:** compensation only (compensation_only)

The judgment of the Punjab and Haryana High Court records the following account. On 23 May 2013, 22-year-old an Amritsar man alias an Amritsar man was sitting inside a barber shop in Amritsar when Head Constable and Head Constable approached and shot him at point-blank range in the chest, killing him instantly. Police claimed they fired in self-defense against a knife attack and registered an FIR against the deceased, while repeatedly submitting cancellation reports in the subsequent inquiry against the police officers. The Punjab and Haryana High Court rejected the self-defense theory, pointing out that trained police armed with service pistols could easily apprehend a knife-wielding suspect without shooting at point-blank range into his chest. Finding that the killing constituted an extra-judicial execution by law enforcement donning the role of judge, jury, and executioner, the High Court awarded Rs. 15,00,000 compensation to the deceased mother. Matters not addressed in the cited judgment text are not recorded here.

> Allowing the act of respondent No.5 to go unchecked would effectively mean validating a death sentence, passed not in line with the due process of law, but by the law enforcement agency donning the role of the judge, jury and executioner.

**Sources (2):** [livelaw.in](https://www.livelaw.in/pdf_upload/crm-m12183201620052025finalorder-601232.pdf); [livelaw.in](https://www.livelaw.in/high-court/punjab-and-haryana-high-court/punjab-haryana-high-court-grants-rs-15-lakh-compensation-to-mother-of-man-killed-by-police-officials-allegedly-in-self-defence-293069)
**Verification:** V2 · Externally reported
**Review:** Solo Staff combined review (one combined attestation) — not yet recorded
**admin category:** brutality
**admin subcategory:** fake_encounter_extrajudicial_killing
**allegations:** {'category': 'Other', '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'}
**anonymised:** False
**court quote para:** 10
**display title redacted:** Amritsar Man vs State of Punjab and others
**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
**institutional response:** {'date': '2025-05-20', 'action_type': 'Order issued', 'status': 'Concluded', 'authority': 'Punjab and Haryana High Court', 'independence': 'External', 'legal_effect': 'Binding', 'description': 'The Punjab and Haryana High Court recorded adverse findings against police personnel and ordered Rs 1,500,000.', 'disposition': 'Compensation ordered · Supports allegation (for the compensated wrong only)', 'source': '2025:PHHC:068484', 'recheck': 'Not yet re-checked.'}
**last checked:** 2026-09-19
**link checked per url:** {'url': 'https://www.livelaw.in/pdf_upload/crm-m12183201620052025finalorder-601232.pdf', 'link_checked': None}; {'url': 'https://www.livelaw.in/high-court/punjab-and-haryana-high-court/punjab-haryana-high-court-grants-rs-15-lakh-compensation-to-mother-of-man-killed-by-police-officials-allegedly-in-self-defence-293069', 'link_checked': None}
**retracted:** {"is_retracted": false}
**service:** police
**source assessment:** {"established": null, "basis": null}
**status:** current
**subcategory display:** fake encounter extrajudicial killing
**tier:** Tier A — Externally reported or officially recorded
**tier badge:** Externally reported
**tier history:** Tier A — Externally reported or officially recorded
**verdict:** accept
**verdict note:** Punjab and Haryana HC held killing of youth at point-blank range in barber shop an extra-judicial killing, awarding Rs. 15 lakh compensation to mother.
**verification badge:** V2 · Externally reported
**verification status:** V2
**watch:** babuwatch

Status: Adverse finding + compensation.

[Open CW-2025-0005](https://datalibertarian.in/babuwatch/incident/CW-2025-0005)