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 of Basti Jodhewal
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 21, 989 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
Sukhdev Singh alias Kaka a 22-yr-old Sikh welder died of injuries reportedly received while in the custody of the CIA police Jalandhar on Oct.21990. 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.
According to the PHRO report Jalandhar police raided Nandpur village at 10am on Oct.11990 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 how 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 9, 1990 ye recorded that the Superintendent of the central Jail had indeed stated “that the undertials 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. 131990 the Supreme Court stated in an order that.
“We fail to understand why proper security arrangements cannot be made in Jail to guard these undertials. 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 within 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 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.
Unacknowledged Detentions And “Disappearances”
Amnesty International has received many reports that the police refuse to acknowledge that they detain people arrested in Punjab on suspicion of being members or sympathizers of Sikh armed groups advocating a separate Sikh state even though there are sometimes eye-witnesses to their arrest or detention. Such people are held in illegal detention for weeks and sometimes months without any record of their arrest or their place of detention. Although the detention of some was eventually acknowledged particularly after habeas corpus petitions were brought such legal remedies have in other cases remained entirely ineffective and police officials have continued to deny knowledge of arrest or detention or else claimed that the person n question had “escaped”
There are numerous instances in which police and security forces have denied arresting or detaining people believed to have en taken in to custody illegally. In several cases the Punjab and Haryana High Court have confirmed that people were held in in acknowledged and illegal detention and ordered that legal proceedings be taken against the police officers responsible. In one such case the High Court initiated contempt of court proceedings against police officials who disobeyed court orders to release detainees held in illegal and unacknowledged detention.
The “disappearance” cases listed below remain unresolved. Amnesty International has selected those recent cases which have been reported to the organization in the greatest detail. Relatives have expressed fears that “disappeared™ persons have been tortured and may even have been killed while in police custody. One of the victims was said to be 15-yrs-old at the time of his “disappearance”.
Devinder Singh Pujari Rajinder Singh Pappu and Jurbaj Singh Jago
Devinder Singh Pujari from Morajkalan Rajinder Singh Pappu from Amritsar and Jurbaj Singh Jago from Mehnidpur were reportedly last seen in custody on March 71990 The exact date and place of their arrest in mid-1989 is not known.
In late February 1990 a local human rights organization was told of the men’s whereabouts by a prisoner released from CRPF custody. The organization immediately brought a habeas corpus petition on behalf of the three men in the Punjab and Haryana High Court which on March 6 ordered their release and appointed a warrant officer to search for them. The following day the warrant officer and members of the human rights organization visited the camp of the 85th Battalion of the CRPF where they believed the detainees were held. They say that they managed to find the three detainees but that before they were able to speak to them the men were driven away in a CRPF jeep without a number plate.
In his report to the Punjab and Haryana High Court of March 8 the warrant officer described how the missing men were found in the CRPF camp he said that when they arrived at the camp they were told to wait for the return of the Assistant Commandant who was on patrol. The warrant officer reported: “During this period nobody was present there and we went outside in front of store rooms numbering 19A 19 20A and 20. The doors of the stores were locked from outside and there were chinks measuring 6″ x 6″ on the upper side. I and the petitioner called the names of alleged detainees from outside in low voice and from that position of door of room No. 19 and 20A the alleged detainees responded to the call and signaled with their heads in affirmative”. A member of the local human rights organization who had been told to wait outside said he saw a sentry go to store rooms No.19 and 20A and take the three men away in a CRPF jeep which carried no number plate. The warrant officer said: “I came out and ran towards these rooms and saw that a jeep was going out of the main gate taking the alleged detainees at a very fast speed” He complained to those in charge: “In the mean-time one time one DIG rank officer and Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP).
Amritsar and many police and CRPF officials reached there. I narrated the whole incident to the high rank officials saying that those officials did not allow me the search of the alleged detainees.” Later the Assistant Commandant of the camp told the High Court: “the detainees were not detained illegally in the premises of the 85th Battalion”. Similar statements were reportedly made in court by other police and CRPF officials.
The High Court did not believe the statement of the Assistant Commandant and on March 22, 1990 started contempt of court proceedings against these officials “for illegal detention and disobeying the orders of this court in not allowing the warrant officer to release the alleged detainees” The court dismissed the denials of officials that the three men had been in their custody as “of no consequence”. However the contempt of court proceedings were subsequently dismissed apparently because the officials involved were transferred outside Punjab No other legal action is known to have been taken against them and the current whereabouts of Devinder Singh Pujari Rajinder Singh Pappu and Torbaj Singh Jago remain unknown.
Jaswant Singh and Chanan Singh
These two elderly Sikhs were among a group of seven men reportedly arrested at the same time All seven cases were mentioned in a habeas corpus petition which secured the release of five of the men who were awarded compensation by the High Court. The whereabouts of Jaswant Singh and Chanan Singh remain unknown.
On Oct.10,1990 the Punjab and Haryana High Court heard a habeas corpus petiotionon brought by the Punjab Human Rights Organization on behalf of seven men allegedly held at either Dera Baba Naka police station Kalanaur police station Kotla Surat Malli chowkie or Shahpar chowkie since Oct4. The PHRO alleged the seven men had been beaten in custody. It stated that the police had refused to acknowledge their detention although they had told the men’s families that unless a bribe for their release was paid the men would be killed in a false “encounter”.
The High Court appointed two warrant officers to search for the detainees one went with a relative of one of the detainees to Dera Baba Naka police station on Oct 11. None of the seven men were found when they searched the cells but when the relative called the detainees by name in a loud voice there was an answer from one of the rooms in the police station. All of the seven men except Jaswant Singh were found in that room although there was confusion: about one of them Chanan Singh. None of the prisoners’ names had been recorded in the daily register. Five of the men were then released. Chanan Singh was kept in custody because his father’s name and the name of his village differed from the details given in the habeas corpus petition. Jaswant Singh was not found during similar searches of the other police stations named in the habeas corpus petition.
Article extracted from this publication >> September 6, 1991
