PATIALA: The Principal of the Desh Bhagat College at Dhuri in Sangrur district, M.S. Pawan, was insulted, beaten up and kept in the torture room for 11 hours by the station house officer of Dhuri police station last week, allegedly at the behest of an influential private transporter.
The police, which entered the College campus following trouble ‘between the transporter’s employees and agitated students, took many of the faculty members in custody. The teachers alleged that eyen the women staffers were not ‘spared and showered with abuses by the policemen.
Trouble started when the students, who used to board the buses of the Libra Transport Company at the Malerkotla bus stand, protested to the driver who refused to stop the bus at the college gate.
This was similar practice despite repeated protests from the students who had to walk for over a mile to reach the college.
On September 8, a large number of students boarded the bus for the college. Sensing a clash in the offing, the driver took the bus to the office of the company at Malerkotla and started terrorizing the students with the help of other workers, Some students who managed to escape, reached the college and informed the principal about the incident.
A group of irate students then geared another bus of the same ‘company near the college gate. In the meantime, several workers of the company reached the campus, and started beating up the students. The principal informed the police which rushed to the college.
As soon as the policemen arrived, the geared bus was set afire.
This created a commotion and both the police party and the company workers stormed into the college premises and started beating up the principal, woman teachers and students.
Amid the free for all, the police took some of the faculty members, including the principal, to the police station and roughed them up.
Expressing outrage at the “illegal confinement” of the teachers, Tarim Bahila, president of the Punjab and Chandigarh College ‘Teachers Union at a Press confererice here later in the day, said even the women staffers were kept in confinement for six hours. Filthy abuses were showered on them. ‘Third degree treatment was meted out to Hasura Singh, a senior lecturer, in the presence of the entire faculty.
Some of the staffers present at the Press conference told journalists that the entire police action took place in the presence of the transport company depot manger Bakhsish Singh.
Pawan was allegedly told to strip by the SHO but timely intervention by Punjab Governor’s ADC Paramjit Singh Gill saved the situation.
Article extracted from this publication >> September 15, 1995
