I, Amar Singh Chahal, Advocate, Punjab and Haryana High Court, Chandigarh, do hereby solemnly affirm and declare as under:-

  1. That I have been practicing law in the High Court at Chandigarh since 1970. I, my wife (38), two daughters (16 & 11) and a son (13) live at Chandigarh. The children are school-going. We all profess Sikh religion.
  2. That I handled numerous defenses of the alleged Sikh terrorists. The under trial Sikhs were not tried for years. The Sikh youths were picked up by the police and Para-military forces from their homes and kept in illegal custody for days and months without producing them before any court.
  3. That, if at all, the police felt the need of producing the arrested Sikhs in Court, the magistrates were taken to police stations or rest houses where they were remanded in police custody in a clandestine manner so that they may not avail of any legal aid.
  4. That as and when I succeeded in meeting such arrested Sikhs, they narrated to me their woeful tales of torture. They were beaten with iron rods and sticks, their long hair and beards pulled and their nails taken out from fingers. I have personally seen such Sikhs with visible injuries during my own detention in Chandigarh jail. They include Ranjit Singh Riar, Jugraj Singh, Gurmeet Singh, Kirpal Singh, Kamaljit Singh, Gurdial Singh, Varinder Singh and Sohan Singh. They all profess Sikhism. I may add that the T.A.D.A. and other black laws are only meant for the Sikhs. In Punjab and Chandigarh no person belonging to any other community (other than Sikhs) was tried under these laws.
  5. That I have filed more than 100 criminal writ petitions in the Punjab and Haryana High Court with regard to the illegal detention of Sikh youths. One peculiar case is of Lavshinder Singh son of Avtar Singh, resident of village Dalewal, District Jalandhar (Criminal Misc. No. 892-M-1987). Lavshinder Singh was bailed out. A few days later he was rearrested and kept under illegal custody for many days. I filed another writ petition (No. 1023 of 1987) seeking his release. On this he was again falsely involved in yet another criminal case. It is a matter of routine for the Punjab police to rearrests when any Sikh comes out of jail on bail or on acquittal and to book him in some other criminal case.
  6. Or the numerous cases handled by me , I take up a typical case of Daya Singh (24), son of Bachan Singh. He was detained in Nabha Jail without trial. I tiled a criminal writ petition No. 348 of 1987. The High Court on 9.4.87 held his detention illegal and directed that he be released. But he was not released. Another criminal petition (Misc No 47 1987) was tiled. Then he was released on 12.5.1987. It is obvious that Daya Singh was kept in illegal detention from 9.4.87 to 12.5.67 in spite the court’s specific order.
  7. That I was also falsely involved in two criminal cases ( vide FIR Nos. 323 dated 19.4.84 of the Police Station, Central Chandigarh and 175 dated 19.4.84 of the Police Station, South Chandigarh) for murder and attempt to murder , along with other 25 Sikhs. I was allowed bail in both the cases. But in order to defeat the grant of bail I was kept in jail under the National Security Act from 19.4.84 to 31.7.85. Two cases are still pending against me and I am out on bail. No trial has been started even after five years of the registration of the cases.
  8. That after my release from jail I am under constant surveillance by the Chandigarh police and my house has been raided thrice at midnight on the pretext of nabbing terrorists and recovering illegal weapons. But at no time any objectionable material was found from my residence.
  9. That the police raids are conducted only to humiliate and terrorize me and my family members including my minor children. This is being done with the motive that I should not take up defence cases of the innocent Sikhs in courts.
  10. That I can certainly say that, in these circumstances and the general situation prevailing in India, Ranjit Singh Gill and Sukhminder Singh Sandhu will not get the slightest justice in any court in India and their extradition will result in their elimination in false encounter or they will be kept in jail without trial. Therefore, it will not behove a civilized nation like the U.S.A. to extradite these youngmen to India.

Chandigarh:

October 9, 1987.