NEW YORK, NY: A federal judge ordered the Immigration and Naturalization Service to force feed Bhupinder Singh alias Ajit Singh who had been on a hunger strike over 20 days to protest his treatment by the INS, according to David Barnett his attorney.

Judge Jack Weinstein ruled on March 23, that the INS should force feed Bhupinder Singh if necessary. He had been arrested at the John F Kennedy airport on October 17, 1988 for traveling on a forged passport by the name of Ajit Singh and has been in INS custody at Warrick Street detention center since then.

Bhupinder Singh does not speak English. His application for political asylum claiming persecution in India, was denied and is now on appeal. Through his interpreter, and without an attorney, he made a statement to the court maintaining that he was Ajit Singh. He later testified in the court that his agent in Delhi had told him to give the contrived version and that he had fabricated his story.

He then said he joined the All India Sikh Student Federation in June 1983 and was arrested by the police on a number of occasions, after which he went underground, till he came to the US on a false passport. He added he was amongst those arrested from the Golden Temple in June 1984 after the Indian army’s bloody assault, and was kept in custody for 10 days. He also said that he was later arrested for sheltering General Labh Singh of the Khalistan Commando Force.

Testifying in court, Bhupinder Singh claimed that he had been tortured, even though he had not mentioned it in his earlier written statement. The court said that his credibility was affected by what he had said earlier, which he had admitted as fabrication. His request for political asylum was denied. Talking to this reporter, David Barnett, his attorney said, “It is not reasonable for the courts to expect torture victims to carry their files with them, especially when fleeing persecution. The suggestion by the court that Mr. Singh’s lack of corroborating evidence for is torture impeaches his credibility is preposterous.””

David Barnett said that his client was denied due process of law and sufficient time to look for an attorney. “He is on a hunger strike to protest his treatment by the INS. The INS has been adamant in refusing his reasonable requests.” He added that INS had refused to let him be examined by Randal Krakauer, a Roseland NJ based torture evaluation expert who has testified for the INS in other cases. Many Sikhs have applied for political asylum claiming persecution in India. In such cases, the State Department in its advisory notes to the judges maintains that, and that it had not been able to determine that “the applicant has a well-founded fear of persecution upon his return to India,” and that “the allegations made… do not constitute a valid claim of persecution on the basis of race, religion, nationality membership in a particular social group or Political opinion.”

The State department said that its opinion was based on their information about the country’s conditions and the relevant facts as available to the department from its conduct of foreign affairs.

David Barnett of the law firm of Frenkel and Hershkowitz of New York has handled scores of cases of Sikhs seeking asylum but this is the first time a Sikh has protested against INS treatment in such a manner.

Dr. Gurmit S. Aulakh and the WSO Canada were duly informed of this case. They had promised to look into the matter.

Article extracted from this publication >> April 6, 1990