According to the PHRO report Jalandhar police raided Nandpur village at 10am on Oct.11,990 in search of Sukhdev Singh The police beat his brother Darshan Singh who disclosed where Sukhdev Singh was. On seeing the police Sukhdev Singh apparently ran into nearby fields where the report alleges the police beat him to death. The police visited Nandpur village the next day and denied having arrested Sukhdev Singh. They suggested a search near the rice Sheller where his body was found.
The post-mortem was conducted by Dr.G.S.Grewal who reportedly recorded at least 10 injuries on the body and head. The PHRO report states that the police claimed that Sukhdev Singh poisoned himself. A magisterial inquiry reportedly recorded testimony from parents and witnesses but despite three summonses the police did not appear before the magistrate. Cruel inhuman and degrading treatment
Some Sikh detainees have been held for long periods in overcrowded conditions and Amnesty International has received reports that some of them have been held in iron fetters for years apparently to prevent their escape.
Hundreds of Sikhs have been detained in recent years in prisons outside the state of Punjab and 20 of them held under the provisions of the Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act in Bareilly Central Jail Uttar Pradesh complained to the Supreme Court in December 1989 that they had been held without trial in iron fetters for nearly four years. Prison records show that they were arrested at various dates in 1986 1987 or 1988. One of their family members also told the Supreme Court that relatives who often had to travel long distances were refused visits to which they were entitled when they arrived at the prison.
The District Judge Bareilly K.C.Bhargava carried out an investigation into these allegations on orders of the Supreme Court In his report of April 91990 he recorded that the Superintendent of the Central Jail had indeed stated that the under trials are being kept in fetters due to security reasons The Superintendent denied that they had been kept in such conditions for four years in
Bareilly Central Jail itself pointing out that they had been received in the prison at various stages between August and December 1989 confirming that they were received from other jails in fetters and that the fetters were continued on them because of their antecedents of being arrogant in committing serious heinous crimes. The District Judge concluded that for security reasons it was necessary to keep certain Sikh prisoners in fetters. On Sept.13, 1990 the Supreme Court stated in an order that:
We fail to understand why proper security arrangements cannot be made in Jail to guard these under trials armed guards can be posted to guard them if security reasons so demand but it seems inhuman to keep them in fetters while they are awaiting trial which is delayed notwithstanding this Court’s order to expedite them.
The Supreme Court ordered that the prisoners should not be kept in fetters. The Supreme Court ordered that their trial be completed quickly preferable with in a period of three months. Amnesty International does not know whether the iron fetters were subsequently removed or whether trials have now started.
Keeping people in iron fetters for long periods constitutes in Amnesty International s view a form of cruel inhuman or degrading treatment prohibited in Article 7 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Moreover the United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners strictly limit in Rule 33 the circumstances in which instruments of restraint can be applied -and then only temporarily and require that chains or irons shall not be used as restraints. Deaths in custody as a result of torture
There have been persistent allegations that political prisoners have died while in custody as a result of torture. Often such deaths are not acknowledged: civil liberties groups in Punjab have alleged for many years that the police later claimed that such people have died in armed encounters (see Chapter V). But sometimes the police have acknowledged that people died in their custody and the Indian press and civil liberties groups have carried reports that such deaths were due to torture.
Surinder Singh was arrested by police at Phillaur on April 24, 1989 while he was travelling by bus to Nakodar. According to a report in the Indian Express Delhi of May 2, 1989 the police suspected he had information about the activities of armed Sikh groups and brought him to the local police station at Phillaur and tortured him. When his family asked about him the Phillaur police reportedly denied that they knew where he was being held. But his parents managed to locate him in the police station and secured his release several days later.
Surinder Singh died within days of his release. According to the press report: He was in a very bad physical state when he was released the efforts of private doctors to save his life failed and he succumbed to his injuries (resulting from torture) yesterday (April 30, 1989)
Sukhdev Singh alias Kaka a 22yt-old Sikh welder died of injuries reportedly received while in the custody of the CIA police Jalandhar on Oct.2, 1990. His body was discovered near Sahnewal town in Ludhiana district. The Punjab Human Rights Organization (PHRO) investigated his death and reported that he had been beaten with various instruments on Oct.1 shortly after arrest.
Article extracted from this publication >> August 2, 1991
