NEW DELHI: For two and half years, a 72yearold man has been running from pillar to post to get six members of his family, including two minor grandchildren, released from the clutches of the Punjab Police, but in vain.
Left with no other alternative, Shingara Singh, a resident of Gulzar pur village in Patiala district, finally knocked at the doors of the Supreme Court to seek justice. On Dec. 16, the Division Bench of Justices S.C, Agarwal and M.K. Mukherjee, before which his petition was listed, issued notice to the six respondents. They include the Punjab Home Secretary, Iqbal Singh Sahota; SSP Fatehgarh Saheb, Sukhdev Singh Bhatti, Dy.Sp; Swaran Singh, SHO; Atma Singh, ASI and Baljeet Singh, Head constable (all of Amloh police station).
The petitioner’s counsels, Sudarsh Menon and Ranji Thomas, have submitted before the court that Shingara Singh’s daughter, Ms. Swaran Kaur, was married to Balbir Singh, an employee in Ranjit Sagar project, who committed suicide on April 21, 1992, following harassment by the police on a charge of being connected with a militant outfit. Thereafter on June 6, 1992, a police party from Amloh police station came in search of Ms. Swaran Kaur to her Brother Gurcharan Singh’s house in Patiala, where she had been residing after her husband’s death.
But since she was not at home, the four member police party abducted the 30yearold Gurcharan Singh, his wife Mrs. Raj Kaur, their three year old son, Ms. Swaran Kaur’s one and half year old’ daughter and a 40yearold woman relative, who happened to be there. A few days later, the police whisked away the petitioner’s eldest on in law Gurdev Singh from Sagra village in Patiala district and another married daughter Mrs. Kulwinder Kaur. From Bhagowal village.
Since Mrs. Kulwinder Kaur was pregnant, she was let off after 15 days with a warming that unless Ms., Swaran Kaur was produced before the police, other family members would not be released.
But on July 20, 1992, though MS, Swaran Kaur was produced before the police, the latter refused to release the other family members, Ms. Swaran Kaur was then subjected to third degree methods for about 18 days and on October 8, 1992, a case was registered against her under TADA at Ghanaur police station. She was, however, acquitted by the Designated Court on November 24, 1993. Meanwhile, the petitioner’s eldest daughter Surinder Kaur, who had tried to approach the Chief Minister and the higher-ups in the police department, was also abducted by the police on December 12, 1992.
Article extracted from this publication >> December 23, 1994
