NEW DELHI: The police have been knocking again at the door of Mr. Charanjit Singh, editor of the Spokesman Weekly.
In the past two months, they have been to his house twice, both times at night, asking the same questions again and again.
The only apparent reason for these visits is his relationship with Mr. Dalip Singh, professor in Bombay’s Khalsa College and an accused in the SIT case of Indira Gandhi’s assassination. Mr. Dalip Singh’s son is married to Mr. Charanjit Singh’s elder daughter.
In a letter to the Lt. Governor, Mr. Arjan Singh, Mr Charanjit Singh has pointed out that the SIT case against Mr Dalip Singh was dropped on December 7, 1989. He adds that he is an accredited journalist with the Government.
“How I became a suspect in the eyes of Delhi Police is beyond my conception,” the letter says.
Last year in June, Mr Charanjit Singh had written a similar anguished letter to the Police Commissioner, Mr Vijay Karan, describing the harassment by the Special Branch of Delhi Police.
At that time, he was subjected to “midnight knocks”, literally. The police would turn up at his house at around midnight every time he visited Mr Dalip Singh in Tihar Jail.
In his letter to Mr Karan, Mr Charanjit Singh had explained that he was visiting Mr Dalip Singh because of tradition and because the latter has no close relatives in Delhi.
“If a respectable and responsible citizen and an accredited journalist like me is a suspect in the eyes of Delhi Police, then the fate of an ordinary Sikh on the street can well be imagined,” he had written.
Unfortunately, the harassment continues, On January 20 the police turned up at his house at 9 p.m. and badgered his young daughter with questions. Mr Charanjit Singh and his wife were not at home.
On February 8, they came again, at 8 p.m. this time, and asked Mr Charanjit Singh the Same questions they had put to his daughter. “Maybe you would like to end this witch hunting by Delhi Police,” he pleads in his letter to the Lt Governor.
Article extracted from this publication >> March 9, 1990
