Several persons from the Dakha area of Ludhiana District reported to the Punjab Human Rights Organisation, Head Office that the Central Reserve Police Force(C.R.P.F.) and the Punjab Police themselves were involved in unlawful and criminal activities in that area while the rural masses had joined hands to resist and expose the forces. The P.H.R.O. asked Principal Sant Singh Sekhon, a veteran intellectual, who lives at Dakha, journalist Sukhdev Singh and advocate Mohinder Singh Grewal to investigate the matter and prepare a report.
The members of the enquiry committee met a cross section of the public. The committee came across an interesting aspect of the working of the security forces in Punjab namely the men in uniform today are free to plunder, to adjudicate upon private disputes and administer their own set of unwritten rules. An equally interesting aspect of the matter the committee found was that the rural masses in their lakhs made a common cause to resist and expose the official agencies functioning as private senas (armies).
During the past few days, several incidents of looting, robbery and assault occurred in Dakha, at a stone’s throw from the Police station of the same name. The incidents were reported to the police which did not register any case and took no notice of the harassment to the villagers. The elders of the village formed watch and ward squads and arranged night patrols. Curiously the Inspector of Police, Mullanpur-Dakha, let it be known to the public that he did not cherish the idea of the villagers forming their own patrol parties and putting up naqas(barricades) to watch and capture the intruders.
Patrolling the outskirts of the village in a routine manner, a group of young men of Dakha noticed a light white Maruti Van (DAE 1171) halt near Kirat Singh’s house. It was about 10 p.m. on May 21, 1989. The patrol party consisted of Avtar Singh, Iqbal Singh, Harbans Singh, Sammi, Charanjit Singh, Baldev Singh etc. The pa:ty had a closer look at the van. Sitting in the van was Gurnam Singh, a son-in-law of Tarlochan Singh of Dakha, and another person who later was identified as Pargat Singh. The driver of the van was a Sikh of about 25. A green Gypsy Jeep followed the van. The patrol party saw a few armed men of the C.R.P.F. in the Gypsy.
As soon as he recognized Jagjit Singh, the village son-in-law with the assistance of Pargat Singh pounced upon Jagjit Singh and threw him in the van. But the other members of patrol party in a quick reflex foiled Gurnam Singh’s action and freed Jagjit Singh. Actually Jagjit Singh is Gurnam Singh’s wife’s brother. But Gurnam Singh in an equally quick move freed himself from the rural group and immediately moved into the C.R.P.F. vehicle.
When the rural patrol party wanted to ask Gurnam Singh as to why he had misbehaved with Jagjit Singh and had tried to abduct him, one of the C.R.P.F. officials – one Deputy Superintendent Bikram Chand Katoch of the Jalandhar based 40 Battalion – intervened to snub the patrol men. The patrol party raised the alarm through the public address system. Soon, hundreds of villagers reached the spot. But for a sober advice from certain village elders against taking the law into their own hands, the village youths would have lynched the night intruders.
In the meanwhile, Tarlochan Singh (Gurnam’s father-in-law) also reached there. He revealed that the C.R.P.F party had first entered into his house and had carried out a search of his house. There was a certain estrangement between Tarlochan Singh’s daughter and his son-in-law. Evidently, Gurnam had secured C.R.P.F.’s help to put pressure on Tarlochan Singh so that he allowed his daughter to accompany Gurnam against her wish. The girl, Daljit Kaur, was not at home.
Cornered, Katoch admitted that he had been sent by his Commandant, (one Sikandar?) to help Gurnam recover his wife against her wish. The villagers showed great patience and handed over the culprit C.R.P.F. men to the nearest police station. The villagers informed Inspector Balkar Singh about the unlawful conduct and misbehavior of the C.R.P.F. men and requested him to register a case against them. The Inspector bravely assured the villagers that he would do the needful and asked them to return to the police station the next morning to see how he had set the C.R.P.F. officials right.
When the villagers went to the police station the next morning they learnt to their disappointment that the Inspector had let off the C.R.P.F. men without even registering an F.I.R. against them.
The Committee was informed by the villagers that the C.R.P.F. Gypsy was without its registration number plate. This practice is said to be common with almost all C.R.P.F. units who are allowed to pick up any person from any place without letting anyone know the abducted person’s destination or whereabouts.
But the public of Dakha area is agitated. They want the guilty C.R.P.F. men, including the Commandant of 40 Battalion, punished. More than 100 representatives of 40 villages met at Mullanpur on May 25, 1989, to set up a seven-member popular committee to oppose the fascist methods of the security forces.
The P.H.R.O committee deeply deplores the security forces conduct in Punjab in general and in Dakha area in particular. The Committee recommends that the public opinion should take due notice of the incident. Popular committees at block level should be set up to oppose unlawful methods adopted by the security forces. The public should not expect any relief in their hour of trial from the known political party leadership. Most political leaders are mere electoral thugs. The public themselves will have to take the initiatives.
