LUDHIANA: In a press release issued Sept.27, the International Human Rights Organization (THRO) has urged the Chief Justice of India to save the life of one Gumam Kaur who is rotting in the illegal custody of the Punjab police since June 1 last. In a letter to Chief Justice MN. Venkatachaliah, THRO urged the chief justice to treat the THRO’s letter as a writ petition for habeas corpus as Gumam Kaur’slifeisin pen.
“We are of the consistent open: yon that there is no rule of law in Punjab. The police is a law unto itself, The police pick up any one at will, Relatives rush to courts which sometimes tell the police to produce the illegally detained persons, In many cases, police disregards courts’ orders, and the persons remain untraced,” says the THRO letter.
The IHRO mentioned in the letter that three Sikh Lawyers had clandestinely been liquidated by the police in the State. Ropar lawyer Kulwant Singh Saini was eliminated along with his wife and 18monthold son. “What is worse is that the chief justice and judges of the Punjab and Haryana High Court remained a mute witness to call this” adds the letter. General Secretary of the rights Organization, MOhinder Singh Grewal, expressed concern over the supreme court’s subterfuge for putting to sleep the cases under TADA from all over India, while on the other hand it had assumed almost a political role on Babri Masjid issue at the cost of independence and impartiality of the judiciary.
“Thus the Supreme Court cannot absolve itself of the responsibility of keeping thousands of people including union leaders, political opponents and even joumalists, advocates and retired high court judges behind bars. Justice A.S.Bains’s case is a typical example,” said Grewal, Meanwhile, the IHRO has strongly condemned the death of a teenage girl, Pochchamma in custody of the Andhra police on September 17, five days after she was taken into custody by the police, It has also urged the Andhra chief minister (0 order a judicial inquiry into the matter to sift out the truth as the police had denied the allegation by her parents that she was tortured to death by the Pochcham pally police.
Article extracted from this publication >> October 8, 1993
