By Darshan Singh Dalla

The Story of Darshan Singh Dalla Media reported in April 1988 that Darshan Singh Dalla, a Sikh activist had been arrested by the police. On April 2, 1988, the Punjabi Tribune carried news projecting the demand for production of Dalla before a Judicial Magistrate. On April 6, Akali Pattika through a story carried the charge that Dalla was in the custody of the police. It was pleaded that either he should be released forthwith or tried in accordance with law. Ajit, yet another daily, reported on April 7, 1988, that the detenu was in the custody of Raikot police and that he was being tortured. Akali Patrika reported the charge on April 20 that the detenu continued to be in the custody of the police and pleaded for his formal arrest if there was any case against him. On April 21, again, an item in Akali Patrika demanded the detenu’s release.

Wife approaches P.H.R.O

In the meanwhile, Bibi Paramjit Kaur, wife of the detenu, approached the Punjab Human Rights Organization through its General Secretary, DS. Gill, requesting him to take necessary action to ensure that her husband was dealt with in accordance with law and not extra judicially as she feared, was being done.

In mid-May 1988, the Government of India prepared and released a document listing charges against and evidence of Pakistan’s involvement in Punjab stating specifically, inter alia, that on information supplied by Darshan Singh Dalla on March 27-28 1988, to the police a huge quantity of weapons was recovered.

From other pieces of information, it was made out that Darshan Singh Dalla was arrested by the Ropar police from the Ropar bus stand on March 26, 1988. The Government of India’s document mentioned above corroborated the information. Subsequent information stated that the detin also remained in the custody of the Hoshiarpur police in the first week of April 1988.

PHRO investigations revealed that Dalla, 32 was an activist of Khalistan Liberation Force. He belonged to Dalla village in Ludhiana district. He was an artisan by profession and was landless. Dalla was first arrested on January 16, 1985 along with Gurdev Singh Kaunke, who later became Chief of Aka! Takhat. Both faced the charge of an attempt to assassinate Kirpal Singh, the then Jathedar of Akal Takhat. After spending a year in Ludhiana jail, Dalla was bailed out in December 1985.

Graduation to “A” Class

According to Paramjit Kaur, Dalla was reportedly and frequently held as and when any incident of violence: in or around’ Jagraon took place. The police harassment became unbearable and Dalla had to leave house to go underground. Subsequently the police arrested and tortured for quite some time 35-40 relations of Dalla including wife and brothers and declared him an “A” class extremist with Rs One Lakh as reward to anyone revealing his whereabouts. The police went to the extent of untethering animals from the family’s house leaving them to no one’s care and even locked the house.

There was no one to fend for the family which included the 26 year old wife, the 60 year old mother, Mukhtiar Kaur and the five year old daughter, Amritpal Kaur. It was in these circumstances that the wife approached PHRO for legal help and the General Secretary, as next friend of Dalla, filed a writ petition, in the Punjab and Haryana High Court at Chandigarh.

The prolonged case, in which young professionally dedicated advocate R.S. Bains appeared for DS. Gill resulted in the Punjab and Haryana High Court passing the following order on October 27, 1989.

Criminal Writ Petition No 1779 of 1989.

D.S. Gill versus State of Punjab and others.

S.S. Grewal

This petition has been filed by Mr. DS, Gill a practicing Advocate at Ludhiana on the allegations that detenu was arrested from Ropar bus stand on 26th of March 1988 by Ropar district police. It was further pleaded that the detenu was neither produced before any Judicial Magistrate nor was he arrested under the National Security Act. It was further pleaded that the whereabouts of said detenu had not been disclosed to his friends and family members in spite of persistent efforts made by the petitioner and that the detenu was kept in illegal custody of Ropar police for a week and then handed over to Para military forces. The detenu was last seen at Hoshiarpur City Police Station in the first week of April 1988, and since then no information concerning the said detenu was given to his family members. It was also pleaded that the news concerning the arrest of detenu was also published in daily Akali Patrika and daily Ajit, Jullundur as well as Punjabi Tribune Chandigarh. The demand for release of the petitioner from police custody or his production in a court of law was published in newspapers in April 198 but to no effect. It was also pleaded that Union of India (respondent No. 2) published a booklet in May 1988 concerning some recent recoveries of weapons in Punjab wherein at item No 1 dated 27th/28th of March 1988 it is mentioned that on basis of disclosures made by Darshan Singh Dalla, a notorious terrorist of Ludhiana and Bhupinder Singh, a Canadian Sikh who sneaked into India from Pakistan a substantial quantity of weapons including explosives were recovered from a secret hide out in Patti area of Amritsar district. This arms cache included 13 AK-47 Chinese rifles, an American rifle with round magazine, 4 sophisticated bombs and 18 detonators along with 14 anti-tank grenades and power charges, which were used in recent attacks by terrorists on CRPF camp at Phagwara.

Article extracted from this publication >> May 11, 1990