CHANDIGARH: Admitting evidence submitted by condemned prisoner Devinder Pal Singh Bhullar, the Punjab and Haryana high court on Tuesday directed the CBI to probe the alleged abduction and custodial killing of Balwant Singh Bhullar and Manjit Singh, father and maternal uncle of Bhullar, respectively. Davinder is lodged in Tihar jail, awaiting death sentence.

A division bench of justices MS Gill and Harbans Lal issued the order while adjourning the case to December 5 to help CBI to put up status report. The affidavits of eyewitnesses, as fresh evidence, were handed over to the bench by Navkiran Singh, a counsel for Bhullar, on Tuesday. Bhullar had on October 5 sought a CBI probe into the alleged abduction and custodial killing of his father and uncle.

"Not only have serious allegations been made in the petition, but the applicant has gone a step further by handing over statements of eyewitnesses to alleged elimination of Balwant Singh Multani, Balwant Singh Bhullar and Manjit Singh in false encounters," the bench said. The CBI will now probe the case of all five persons - the three accused plus Bhullar’s father and uncle, who were allegedly eliminated by the police in 1991.