Jalandhar: One of the most important cases to conclude trial in Jalandhar was that of Jagtar Singh Tara. He was acquitted in a 16-year-old case registered under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) and the Arms Act in Bhogpur. The court of Additional Sessions Judge Rajiv K. Berry acquitted him because the prosecution failed to prove the evidence against him. Another important case involved a 27-year-old man in Jalandhar who raped and murdered his six-month-old daughter. The case was registered in October 2022 under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code and other sections of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act. This month, the Special POCSO Court of Additional Sessions Judge Archana Kamboj sentenced the accused to life imprisonment until death. Jalandhar courts delivered verdicts in several important cases related to the Enforcement Directorate. One such case involved the attachment of properties worth ₹5.58 crore belonging to former Ludhiana Improvement Trust chairman Raman Bala Subramaniam, executive officer Kuljit Kaur, and others under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). The ED also arrested at least three individuals in the ₹2,200 crore Cloud Particle fraud case, who were brought to the Jalandhar court for remand.
Several VIPs attended the trial in this case at the Jalandhar court complex. Among them was former Congress minister Bharat Bhushan Ashu, who appeared along with 28 other accused in the PMLA case filed against him. Jalandhar Central Aam Aadmi Party MLA Raman Arora also appeared in court while under arrest and seeking bail. The District Bar Association (DBA) elections were also held in March this year, and Advocate Aditya Jain won the presidential election for the third consecutive time. His new team includes lawyers Ratan Dua, Rohit Gambhir, and Ram Chhabra, among others. In November of this year, the DBA honored more than 20 lawyers who had completed 50 years of practice. This year, the city was honored with the designation of renowned lawyer Mandeep Sachdev as a Senior Advocate. In October of this year, the Punjab and Haryana High Court bestowed this honor on a total of 76 lawyers, and Sachdev was the only lawyer from the city. Sachdev was also in the news this year because he received extortion calls from a young man in Canada. The accused, Sandeep Singh Sunny, a resident of Nakodar, sent a textile merchant to Sachdev’s office to extort ₹50,000 from him. Later, it was revealed that Sunny had attempted the extortion at the behest of an accused in a 17-year-old kidnapping case, in which Sachdev had allegedly appeared as a defense lawyer.
The DBA was embroiled in controversy this year for declaring “no work days” on several occasions. One such occasion was to protest an extortion call received by Sachdev. Other cases involved the illegal detention of lawyers by the police or the death of lawyers. Another tragic incident in legal circles occurred when All India Sikh Students Federation (AISSF) President and lawyer Parminder Singh Dhingra was shot dead at his neighbor’s home in the Dilbagh Nagar Extension area. This year, court work was further disrupted when heavy rains in September flooded the basement of the judicial court complex. The flooding damaged all controls, including elevators, computer servers, and printers. For some days, cause lists for circulation had to be prepared manually instead of printed copies. The year 2025 also saw a rare confrontation between the judiciary and the executive when Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM) Jalandhar Rahul Kumar Azad filed a formal complaint with the Deputy Commissioner (DC) in June this year against his senior assistant, Pawan Kumar Verma, for alleged misconduct. The CJM had alleged that Verma had used abusive language in his court while requesting the return of files related to hit-and-run compensation cases.
Jalandhar: Court monitors trial in high-profile murder, money laundering case
