CHANDIGARH: It was an endless wait for everybody the three old persons who had been illegally detained since 1992as well as the members of their family until the tong is of justice intervened to free them. ‘A warrant officer appointed by the Punjab and Haryana High Court, on the basis of a habeas corpus petition, found the two old men and a woman in the Police Station of Lohat Bati in Ludhiana, on the night of April 28, Languishing in custody for all these years, the three find it hard to believe their newfound freedom. Their tale, as detailed in the habeas corpus and told to this correspondent, speaks volumes of the highhandedness of some police officers who continued to detain the members of the family including its women folk since June 1992, to press upon them to produce a missing son, who, the police said, had become a militant, The. Extraordinary “effort,” according to the family, was directed towards attaining the hefty award of Rs 10 lakh that the missing youth was carrying.
A dazed Ranjit Kaur, who the police sought to punish for the sins of her missing son, Sampooran Singh, breaks down when she recalls having once identified a body in police custody as that of her son. Admitting the habeas corpus filed by Ranjan Lakhan Pal and Atul Lakhan Pal, Justice V.K.Bali sent a warrant officer to trace the detainees. ‘The warrant officer found Niranjan ‘Singh (72), father of the missing youth, his elder brother, Mohinder Singh(78) and Ranjit Kaur (62), his wife, all residents of Sarabha village, at the Lohat Bati police station. There was, however, no mention of their detention in the roznamcha. Meanwhile, after learning of their release, Justice Bali adjourned the case for May 16 as the corked representing the state of Punjab sought time to file the reply.
The three narrated their tale of woe to this correspondent. A taxi driver in Calcutta, Niranjan Singh and his family was forced to flee to Punjab in the aftermath of the ’84 riots in which his. taxi was burt, Slowly, the family began rebuilding their life with the help of a loan.
They had hardly recovered from the trauma of being displaced, when their troubles began afresh, In June 1992, a police party raided their house in search of Sampooran Singh. It was the beginning of their nightmare. The police detained and tortured the members of the family in order to find out the whereabouts of Sampooran. The family now admits that he had joined the rank of militants and was missing since early 1992, The police, intensified their search for him after akin of a police officer who was killed by the militant, was kidnapped. “I was picked up in June 1992 by the police,” recalls Niranjan Singh. However, no case was registered. In custody, he was repeatedly tortured. A few months later, his wife Mrs. Ranjit Kaur was picked up. Then came the turn of their 20 year old daughter Miss Paramjit Kaur along with Mohinder Singh
From time to time, the village elders and some Akali leaders intervened to seek their release, Paramjeet, who was engaged, was then let off to enable her to get married. But then, her elder sister was picked up. Niranjan Singh tries to recall names of a number of police officers and SHOs who have been taking his family into custody continuously since 1992. All these months, they were provided with inadequate food and Ranjit Kaur was made to cook food for the police staff. They always slept on the floor and only recently they were lucky to get some clothing from a relative. Meanwhile, not able to repay the loan, their minibus has been confiscated and there are no whereabouts of their cattle. All they know is that their water pump is still with the police.
Article extracted from this publication >> May 12, 1995
