Punjab Human Rights Organization regularly receives information of abductions and illegal detentions of the Sikhs at the hands of police and para-military forces in the State of Punjab on the mere suspicion of being members or sympathizers of the Sikh militant groups advocating a separate Sikh State Khalistan. While in some cases the detainees are eventually found to have died in custody in others they are found to have been deliberately killed in custody although the official reports claim that they died in armed ‘encounters’ with the police. A large number of detainees are kept in illegal custody for weeks and sometimes months all efforts of PHRO to get them produced in courts or secure their release notwithstanding. Even appeals to Government of India from international organizations like Amnesty International and U.N. Centre for Human Rights have failed to provide any relief to the victims
It was in the wake of the attack on Director General of Punjab Police Mr D.S.Mangat by certain separatist militant groups on 2 February 1991 at Ludhiana that the police picked up about 200 Sikh youths from Ludhiana district alone during the month of February 1991. Dozens of them were kept in illegal custody for days together while numerous were subjected to humiliation and torture. Some of them were liquidated by the police just to counter the militants’ attack on the Director General Police and also with a view to show results’. The case study at hand concerns the killing of PHRO Vice President Dr Gurbachan Singh Mavi’s son Atamjit Singh by the police. Dr Mavi is a senior Professor of Entomology at Punjab Agricultural University (PAU) Ludhiana.
Atamjit Singh a 19 year old B.S.c. I student of Arya College Ludhiana and Mohan Singh a 22 year old B.S.c. II student of the same college from Araich village were reported having been picked up by Ludhiana police on 5 February 1991 from Bhai Bala roundabout in the city and seen to the be taken away by a Deputy Superintendent of Police (D.S.P) and a Police Inspector.
The PHRO took up the matter and sent telegrams to the Chief Justice of the Punjab and Haryana High Court and Punjab Home Secretary seeking their intervention in the case of disappearance of the boys at the hands of Ludhiana police. The Organization also constituted a four member team comprising its Chairman Harinder Singh Khalsa General Secretary D.SGill and Secretaries Mohinder Singh Grewal and Gurbhajan Singh Gill to enquire into the mater.
The PHRO investigation team met parents and relatives of the victims, It also visited the spot where abduction took place and talked to several people including Sardan Lal, a cycle repair shop owner, Sohan Lal and his son Raju, tea-stall owners, Tara Chand, a school teacher and Ram Singh. The statements of witnesses who said the incident occurred some 150 yards away from the Crime Intelligence Agency (CIA) Ludhiana was recorded.
In the meantime the organization through its UK office informed International secretariat of Amnesty International London about the abduction. Amnesty International took initiative and wrote to minister of State for Home Affairs Sahay and Governor of Punjab retired General .P Malhotra on 13 February 1991 expressing concern about the disappearances of Atamjit Singh and Mohan Singh. Amnesty International urged them to produce the boys before a magistrate and grant them regular access to lawyers and relatives The Amnesty sent copies of the appeals to DGP Mangat.
According to the PHRO investigation team Atamjit Singh was going on a bicycle along with Mohan Singh near Bhai Bala roundabout at about 10:45 a.m on 5 February 1991. While negotiating the roundabout they were forcibly picked up by a CIA police team led by D.S.P. Shiv Kumar Sharma and Inspector Manmohan Singh in full view of the public. The police personnel had come in a Gypsy jeep with no number plate and a private brown Matador van with registration number DL-3C-3066. The hands of both the boys were tied at their backs with their turbans and they were taken away in the Matador van. Their bicycle was parked in front of a Dhaba (an eating place) by the police party and the Dhaba owner was asked to take care of it. A CIA constable took the bicycle away later in the evening.
Since the abduction took place in the busy area of the city it was naturally witnessed by over a hundred people who happened to be there at that particular point of time. Many students from the nearby colleges saw Atamjit Singh and Mohan Singh being picked up by the police. Since the CIA staff Headquarters are located nearby the shopkeepers of the area had no difficulty in recognizing D.S.P. Shiv Kumar Sharma and his men.
The PHRO investigations revealed that the Matador van had forcibly been taken into custody by the CLA staff days before 5 February and was returned to the owner of the van on 7 February after it had met with an accident. A delegation of members of the Punjab Agricultural University Teachers Association (PAUTA) along with Vice Chancellor of the University met Governor Malhotra on 11 February as the Ludhiana police was maintaining a criminal silence over the matter. The Governor promised to look into the matter and let them know the whereabouts of the two boys.
On 12 February the Ludhiana police chief Anil Kumar Sharma made a statement that neither of the two young Sikhs was in police custody. He categorically denied that the boys were ever wanted by the police in any criminal case. A few days later even the Governor publicly denied the unacknowledged arrest of the boys by the Ludhiana police.
Meanwhile the PHRO team came across a person who was in a way connected with this incident. He disclosed on condition of anonymity that the students were killed at Nasrali village in Sardar Police Station area on the night of 5 February after they were abducted from Ludhiana in the forenoon. The police he revealed stage-managed an encounter and shot them dead in cold blood. The police story that Ludhiana CIA and Khanna sadar police parties had killed two unidentified militants in an armed encounter was totally false and fabricated claimed the person.
In order to check the veracity of the facts disclosed by the above person the PHRO team arranged to collect the First Information Report (FIR) of the Nasrali incident and copies of the postmortem reports of the dead bodies from Judicial Magistrate Khanna.
According to FIR No 26 of 2 February 1991 lodged at Sadar Police Station Khanna the Ludhiana C.I.A police party comprising Inspector Manmohan Singh Assistant Sub Inspector Sukhdev Singh Assistant Sub Inspector Tilak Raj and 20 head constables and constables and aided by Khanna Sadar police party led by Sub Inspector Sant Kumar and including Assistant Sub Inspectors Rattan Singh and Dilbagh Singh was on a patrol duty at a bridge near Nasrali village at about 12:30 a.m. two unidentified Sikh youths were seen advancing towards the police posse on foot. They were warned by Inspector Manmohan Singh not to proceed any further. But the two men instead started firing at the party. The police returned the fire in defence and during the armed encounter both the youths were killed.
The police claimed to have recovered some arms and ammunition from the person of the dead.
The FIR and post mortem reports of the unidentified dead bodies were shown to the parents of Atamjit Singh and Mohan Singh by the PHRO. The parents asked the police to show them clothes and photographs of those killed in Nasrali “encounter” The police showed them the clothes but not the photographs. The clothes of course were not of their wards. On 7 March 1991 the parents wrote to Deputy Inspector General of Police R.S.Gill seeking instructions for the Ludhiana police to show them the photographs but of no avail.
The PHRO while releasing its investigation report to the Press on 26 February 1991 claimed that during the investigation it had come across a strong evidence to conclude that Atamjit Singh and Mohan Singh after having been abducted by CIA police from Bhai Bala roundabout were first taken to CRPF Interrogation Centre Dugri and from there to Sadar Police Station Khanna It was from there that they were taken to the site of the alleged encounter where they were murdered in cold blood. The whole operation was supervised by D.S.P. Shiv Kumar.
The investigating team also concluded on the basis of facts it had gathered that the boys were liquidated in a clandestine manner. In order to suppress the identity of the victims not only were their clothes changed before killing but even the photographs of the dead were also tempered with after the crime.
The PAUTA President Dr Hari Singh Brar in his letter of 8 March 1991 to the Governor affirmed that the information collected by PAUTA was similar to the one revealed by PHRO in its report. He had demanded a judicial enquiry into the incident by a sitting judge of the High Court PAUTA also made frantic enquiries from the law enforcing agencies despite all this the Punjab Government run by the Centre through its agent Governor Malhotra showed callous indifference. Neither did it come out with the facts of the’ crime nor did it agree to institute a judicial enquiry a statutory obligation of the government.
The PHRO On its part censured this: callousness on the part of the administration and demanded immediate suspension of Ludhiana police chief and other officials guilty of the crime. It also demanded a judicial enquiry into the matter.
And it was no coincidence: that the’ Ludhiana police raided the residence of Mohinder Singh Grewal advocate the PHRO secretary for investigations on 3 February 1991. It is felt that the raid was conducted solely because Grewal is related to Sukhminder Singh Sandhu presently awaiting extradition in a New York jail for the alleged murder of General A.S. Vaidya who was responsible for launching an army attack on the Golden Temple in 1984. Sukhminder Singh Sandhu is the first cousin of Grewal.
PHRO has been in the forefront in highlighting in the international for a the cruel and arbitrary police functioning in Punjab. Police’s high handedness against PHRO Officials bears testimony to the fact that Punjab police has no regard for human rights. The killing of Atamjit Singh whose father is Vice President of PHRO undoubtedly is an attempt by the State to stifle the voice of the PHRO.
We in the PHRO make fervent appeal to the international human rights agencies to lake note of these murders and pressurize the Government of India to desist from such gross violation of human rights and to see reason.
D.S.Gill Advocate General Secretary
Article extracted from this publication >> May 17, 1991
