LUDHIANA: The Punjab Human Rights Organisation asserted that the Sikh Students leader Mr. Satpal Singh Dhillon was gunned down in cold blood by the Jalandhar Police with aid of its death squad on September 14 and demanded a judicial enquiry into the incident.

The PHRO Chairman Mr. Harinder Singh Khalsa, formerly an Indian Diplomat, and its General Secretary Mr. D‘S. Gill in a statement here said the murder of General Secretary of the Sikh Students Federation (Daljit Singh), Mr. Satpal Singh Dhillon was preplanned and it was executed by the District Police in collaboration with the secret killing squad popularly known as “Cats”.

The matter was investigated by a three member PHRO team comprising Mr. D.S. Gill, Mr. Bhupinder Singh Somal and Mr. Anmol Singh Grewal, all advocates.

According to Mr. Khalsa, the investigating team has come across a strong evidence to suggest that the CRPF “Cats” in a Maruti Car chased Mr. Dhillon and shot him dead from behind his back near the T.V. Station on a link road while he was riding a scooter on pillion with Mr. Balbir Singh Cheema, an advocate and local leader of the Akali Dal (Mann).

The human rights advocates had gathered this information after visiting the spot and meeting dozens of persons including Mr. BaIbir Singh Cheema, Mrs. Jagir Kaur, sister of the slain leader and Mr. Amarjit Singh Shergill advocate.

Mr. Balbir Singh Cheema was a little nervous, observed the team, as he was brutally tortured and threatened to be killed by the “Cats” in case he took up the matter after his release from the police custody. His life could only be saved because of the vigorous intervention by the local District Bar Association and lawyer’s community in Punjab, said Mr Khalsa.

According to the Committee’s findings, the police was keeping track of the SSF leader for the last few days and the “Cats”, allegedly working under aegis of the Government and organized by the District Police Chief Mr. Sudesh Arora and D.LG. Mrs. S. Virk of the CRPP, followed Mr. Dhillon when they left Mr. Cheema’s office for the District Courts. They gunned down the federation leader in midday view of the people attending there while the advocate was abducted and brought to the CRPF camp in the city.

The Police version (Report No. 17/18) that the “boy” was killed in an armed encounter with the police is nothing but a camouflage for the “Cats”, who had earlier assassinated political activists, Major Baldey Singh, claiming responsibility in the assumed name Indian Lions. Sympathizers and relatives of top militant leaders are on hit list of these assassins, added Mr. Khalsa quoting police sources.

The recovery of a pistol and cartridges from person of the deceased, the Committee concluded, was also a concoction as the eye witness account revealed that the police had themselves placed the arm and ammunition there after Mr. Dhillon was killed.

The PHRO has deplored the fact that the youth leader had been killed by the State for his political views and alignments, otherwise he was not wanted by the police in any criminal case.

The organisations has also called upon the world community especially the United Nations and the Amnesty International to exert their pressure on the Government of India to disband the state sponsored death squads and to constitute a judicial enquiry into the killings by these groups,

SSF leader was slain by “Cats”; PHRO.

Article extracted from this publication >> November 16, 1990