CHANDIGARH: The report submitted by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to the Supreme Court confirming the worst fears of nearly 1,000 persons having been cremated as “unidentified terrorists” by the Punjab Police over the years, could open a Pandora’s box overflowing with official excesses. The CRI report, which figured in the Lok Sabha last week, as evoked stronger action from different quarters on expected lines. While human rights groups and the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) have acknowledged the effort of the Supreme Court and the CBI, a powerful section of the Punjabi Police is alarmed at the development. What worries the police officers is that the probe could uncover the whole gamut of anti-militant operations of the security forces in Punjab. This could lead to the possible prosecution of all those officers who carried out these controversial operations, many of which, though effective were clearly outside the legal framework. Those hauled up could in clue not only a significant chunk of the rank and file of the Punjab Police but also the paramilitary personnel who were deployed in Punjab. It is feared that should the inquiry dig deep, the very basis of the anti-militant policy in the state, which finally succeeded in controlling militancy, could come under scrutiny. There is enough evidence to link even key officials in the Union Government who were in the know of things. In fact, some of them were advising officials in Punjab on the need to keep executive actions’ launched in violation of the law of the land under wraps. A ‘secret’ letter of December 30, 1991 from the then Special Director, V.C. Vaidya to Punjab DGP K.P.S. Gill, though written in a different context, amply brings out the approval given to operations in Punjab by prime functionaries at Delhi.
While, incidents of police excesses were reported even during the regime of Akali Chief Minister Surjit Singh Barnala, the kind of functioning which led to mass cremations on the sly came to be associated first with the Governor’s rule and then the early days of the Beat Singh regime in Punjab. Some of the police officers, who are already in the dock following indictment by courts, feel that since there are in consistence in records, senior officers should come to their rescue. In many cases the names of the very people cremated as ‘unidentified’ without information to their families, figure in the list of “unannounced rewards” distributed to police officers at about the same time.
The ongoing probe threatens to bring about a division in the rank and file of the police force. In numerous cases magisterial inquests, which are mandatory under Section 176 of the CrPC for deaths in police custody and in police encounters, were not held. In the course of its probe.
The CBI has reportedly come across Punjab Police’s own circular cautioning its officers against picking up suspects from other states without informing their counterparts there, as required. “Under Section 8 of the Indian Evidence Act, this testimony can be used against us,” confided an officer.
A section of the officers go to the extent of demanding that the Union Government should intervene and have the Parliament decide a cutoff date on such sensitive matters. “Since the controversial policy yielded unprecedented results, all executive actions of the officials before a certain date should be provided immunity,” said a senior officer.
Article extracted from this publication >> July 31, 1996
