Punjab Police faces a new charge illegal detention of women, taken into custody for extracting information about their male relatives.
Three such cases have been reported from Amritsar district in the last one month alone and in one the executive magistrate has even indicted the Punjab police for wrongfully confining four women forcing Punjab’s police chief K.PS, Gill to order his men not to detain any women overnight.
In one incident Piar Kaur of Gagrewal village in Amnitsar district and her two daughters, Daibir and Lakhwinder, were picked up by the station house officer of Verowal police station on May 10 for four days they were held in police custody, where they were subjected to beating and abuse, while their father, Dara Singh, a poor harijan,tried in vain to secure their release. Till date no case has been registered against them. When contacted, Beco factory interrogation center.
Dara Singh however, contests the police statement, saying” My wife and daughters were picked up because they had a dispute with a village elder.” And adds, “My son, who was around, gave up moonshining many months ago following threats from militants.”
Inanother incident four women of Buthala village were beaten and later pressured by the police to withdraw their complaint. An executive magistrate, who inquired into the incident, reportedly confirmed their harassment.
But the most shocking was the case of Gurmit Kaur a 17 year old girl of Leherka Village, who was allegedly raped in police custody, while her father and brother were in jail. According to her complaint she and her sister were taken away from their farmhouse. Her sister was released but she was blindfolded and allegedly raped by five policemen on April 22. The police now want the girls to admit that such a thing never happened. Both the sisters are keeping away from the village. The police in their defense, say the story in an attempt to malign them. “The fact that one of the girls was to get married to a freedom fighter shows where their loyalties lie.” The girls family, however deny the charges,
The harassment of women is also highlighted by the Gurmit Kaur case. Gurmit mother of Raj Gurbax Singh of Chugawan yillage in Amritsar district, had filed a Writ petition before the Punjab and Haryana high court one and a half years ago pleading that the Amrit sar district police officials be directed to intimate the where about of her son.
Inspector Madan Gopal, then SHO, Ajnala, submitted an affidayit in the high court that Gurbax, who was wanted in seven cased including one of murder, had escaped from police custody on August 16,1987. When Gurmit challenged the “escape theory”, contending that her son might haye been killed, Justice Ujagear Singh ordered Amritsat’s Additional Sessions Judge Bakhshish Kaur to inquire into the alleged escape of the detenue.
Bakhshish Kaur, in her report submitted to the high court on January 17, 1989 (not made public yet), stated “Raj Gurbax hadn’t escaped from police custody as alleged and the facts relating to the escape do not appear to be satisfactory.”
But what was more surprising was the mother’s testimony. Gurmit in her deportation before the additional sessions judge stated that she and her husband, Gurmej Singh, had been taken into custody by the police when they made efforts to locate their missing son. She also stated that her husband was later tortured to death, though the police claimed he had died in an encounter in August 1987. Further she alleged that she had been wrongly confined for over a month and then framed in a case (in which she was acquitted subsequently).
The police highhandedness has come in for strictures in several other cases also on August 21 1988 the Jalandhar district police apprehended six persons for allegedly conspiring the trigger migrations by killing Hindus in the Shastri Nagar area. A case of sedition under the IPC and another under the Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention (TADA) Act were registered against the six.
But the law officer of the investigation wing of the government found inherent defects in the police story. The DIG (investigations) recommended that the case be dropped and in a note, issued on February 8, 1989, recorded. “It is high time district police chiefs are told in clear terms that such bogus cases based on flimsy grounds only add to the unpopularity of the police and spoil the image of the government.”
In another case, the CIA staff of Ludhiana police arrested Gulshan Kumar of Ram Nagar near Jagraon under the Arms Act and the TADA action December 31,1988. One 10 bore pistol and one cartridge were shown as recovered from him. The Ludhiana SSp termed the accused as a “bad element” and recommended that the case be pursued. however, the ‘SP(investigations) in his report of February 6,1989 held that the ‘accused was implicated to fulfill figures of targets under the Arms Act”. He further stated that the “unconvincing prosecution story is a clear abuse of the TADA act”.
In yet another incident, the case against DrInderjit Singh of Jalaluddin village in Sangrur district was withdrawn after he had served a one year jail term. he was arrested on May 13,1987, again under the TADA Act. Dunng the investigation, the district police insisted on pursuing the case station that “he is likely to indulge in antinational activity”. The investigation cell, however, declared that there was a “smell of abuse of authority in the fabricated case and the accused was innocent.” The DIG (investigations) on May 18 1988, wrote.” I regret to record that if this sort of working is allowed to continue, we will lose the confidence of the public.”
The warnings have clearly gone unheeded. The Batala police district, headed by Gobind Ram, is an example of “repressive policing”. Illegal detentions for weeks on end are common. Swaran Singh, a harijan of Bariar village, complained that his brother, Gurcharan Singh, who had been produced before the BSF officials on April 2 was kept in illegal custody till May 2 when he was shown to have been arrested in a encounter, with one 12 bore postal and six cartridges in his possession.
Sulakhan Singh, an advocate, who has been detained four times for, as he puts it “doing my legal job” (but police say for holding meetings of terrorists) told INDIA WEEK on May 11 that his brother, Mohinder Singh who retired as an inspector of Delhi police three months ago had been in illegal detention since May 3. He is accused of giving his uniforms to terrorists.
Most of the persons detained’ illegally are lodged either in Sadar police station, Batala or on the Beco Engineering Company, an abandoned factory taken over by security forces. There are charges, denied by police official, that several persons shown killed in encounter had been at the Beco premises for many days.
Article extracted from this publication >> June 9, 1989
