There have been persistent allegations that alleged members or sympathizers of armed opposition groups, or their relatives, in Punjab have been killed in police custody, often after torture, their deaths or “disappearances” later being wrongly attributed by officials to an “encounter” between militants and the police, to an “escape” during such an “encounter” or to other improbable causes. In this paper, we describe three such incidents, We have selected them because there is strong evidence to suggest that they are part of a persistent pattern of such “encounter” killings or “escapes” from custody staged by the police to cover up the killing of the victim in police custody, and also in order to show that relatives of suspected militants may also fall victim to such practices.

Avtar Singh, son of Kejar Singh from Shatrana village, Patiala district, Punjab, was an independent candidate in the postponed 1991 Punjab state assembly elections for the Lehra Goga Assembly constituency. His brother, Jamail Singh Shatrana, had reportedly joined the Khalistan Commando Force, one of the armed opposition groups operating in Punjab, since then family members alleged they had been arrested and otherwise harassed by the police trying to establish Jarnail Singh Shatrana’s whereabouts.

The government denies he was tortured and kept ‘in illegal detention since July 25. The government’ confirms he was arrested, bur maintain his arrest took place on Aug.6,1991, the day of his death and that during interrogation of Aug.6, he confessed to having concealed weapons in Gurdial Puja Bir, The family say, however, that an inspector from the Patiala interrogation center came to Avtar Singh’s house on July 26 and demanded to be shown Avtar Singh’s gun and its license, given to Avtar Singh for protection as a candidate during the Assembly elections, The family say the policeman knew the exact place where the weapon was kept which confirmed the family’s belief that Avtar Singh was indeed then being held by the police, had been interrogated and revealed the location of the hidden gun. The next day the inspector confirmed that suspicion during a telephone conversation with the President of the Akali Dal (Panthic) reportedly saying that Avtar Singh was in police custody. ‘The Punjab state government Sent initial information regarding these allegations in response to Amnesty International’s March 1992 report India: Torture, rape and deaths in Custody in a factsheet. In it, the government claims that Avtar Singh was arrested on Aug.6, 1991, although his arrest on July 25, 1991 was reportedly witnessed by a local farmer and his illegal detention was subsequently confirmed by a local police official. The government also claim that the body was handed over to the family for cremation and yet Avtar Singh’s wife claims that his body was not handed over to them but was discovered in the back of a police vehicle by an angry crowd of people who had learned of Avtar Singh’s death and took his body away and handed it over to the family. The government says a postmortem was reportedly conducted by doctors of the Civil Hospital, Samana which found that “the cause of death is by gunshot injuries and there is no mention of other injury or torture. He was neither tortured by the police nor was he kept under illegal detention.” Amnesty International ‘has, however.

I had taken of Avtar Singh’: dead body showing apparent sings of torture. These have been analyzed by an independent forensic pathologist at Amnesty International’s request, who found that “There are markings to the bottoms of both feet consistent with the application of a heated instrument.” Contrary to the assertion in the government’s fact sheet that Avtar Singh was killed by being fired upon by what were described as terrorists, during an “encounter” and thus from a distance, the medical report found that an oval wound ‘on the back of the right wrist appeared in fact to be from a contact gunshot wound: the muzzle of the firearm with which Aviar Singh was shot had been in contact with the skin at the time of firing.

An Amnesty International delegation, visiting New Delhi in Nov.1992, discussed the allegations with officials in the Home Ministry, pressing the government for a full inquiry by an independent and impartial body into the allegations. As of March 1, 1993 no such inquiry is known to have been ordered or held. Gurdev Singh Kaonke, a44yearold former high priest of the Akal Takht (a Sikh religious body), allegedly died in police custody on the night of Jan.3,1993, He had been held in Sangrur jail for the last two years on a murder charge but was acquitted from these charges by a sessions judge in Nov.1992 and released. However, he was detained for a few hours on Dec.20, 1992 when he was taken by the Station House Officer from the village temple to his home where the police found two guns, for which he reportedly had a license. He was taken away by the police, his family members reporting they were not allowed to speak to him. His family was told he was seen in police custody on Dec.28, 1992, apparently in poor health and was last seen being taken from the police station on Jan.1, 1993 at 4 pm. His wife filed a High Court petition in the Punjab and Haryana High Court which immediately sent a Search. Party to locate him on Jan.2, 1993. The search was in vain: he was neither found in Jagraon police station nor in the Criminal Investigation Agency center in town.

On Jan3 the’ police reported that JGurdev. Singh Kaonkt had “escaped” from police custody the previous night when he was taken by police in a party to seize weapons near Kanian village, Sidhwan Bet police station, Jagraon police district. The police claim their party was ambushed by militants and that during an exchange of fire Gurdev Singh Kaonke escaped with handcuffs on, “under cover of darkness.” But he is not known to have returned to his family and his body was never found. Harjinder Kaur, wife of Hardeep Singh of Latala village, was reportedly beaten to death by police on Aug. 11, 1992. According to reports, police entered her house during a search and tied up herself, Hardeep Singh, her husband, Nasib Kaur, her sister and Amarjeet Singh, her brother-in-law and then beat them. Her brother-in-law, sister and husband were taken away by the police to Sudhar police station. Harjinder Kaur was left to die, which she did, that evening in Kundan Lal hospital. Harjinder Kaur’s sister was released from police custody three days later, her brother-in-law 10 days later. Amarjeet Singh claims that he saw Hardeep Singh in police custody in a “desperate state” and that he had been beaten. The family initially refused to perform the last rites on Harjinder Kaur’s body until her husband Hardeep Singh was released since the police reportedly assured the family that he would be released within 13 days. Which would enable him to attend the last religious rites for his wife? However, as far as Amnesty International is aware Hardeep Singh is still in police custody.

A postmortem was carried out on Harjinder Kaur’s body and attributed her death to “hemorrhage and shock as result of extensive injuries.” Villagers who took Harjinder Kaur’s body to hospital were told to write the cause of death as “death due to buffalo blows,” .but they refused to do so. The postmortem’ report, however, records this as the probable cause. Deaths in custody allegedly resulting from torture have been a major concern of Amnesty International in India for many years. In areas of armed insurgency such as Punjab, police are often known to have covered up such deaths by staging “encounter” killings or claiming that the victim “escaped” during such an “encounter.” The occurrence of custodial deaths how~ ever is not at all confined to areas of armed insurgency, but extends all over India. Although Indian government officials, including the Prime Minister himself, have repeatedly condemned such practices, no concrete steps have yet been taken to halt custodial violence in India.

As regards Punjab, Amnesty International regularly receives reports of torture, “disappearances” and unacknowledged detention of people arrested on suspicion of being members or sympathizers of one of the Sikh opposition groups advocating a separate Sikh state, “Khalistan and who have themselves frequently rezoned to human rights abuses such as torture and indiscriminate killings of civilians, sometimes after taking them hostage. In some cases those detained by the police are eventually found to have died in custody although official reports say they died in “encounters” with the police. Even though legal safeguards against torture and unacknowledged detention exist in India’s ordinary criminal law and procedural code, they are often not adhered to. In addition, special legislation grants the security forces arbitrary powers to arrest and detain people without ordinary legal safeguards and without charge or trial and prisoners are held in illegal, unacknowledged detention for weeks and sometimes months, without being brought before a judge.

The deaths of Avtar Singh and Gurdev Singh Kaonke are believed to be part of a pattern of “encounter” killings staged by the Punjab police to cover up deliberate killings of a suspect in police custody, usually after torture. The, Punjab. press regularly reports in virtually | identical language “that a militant was being taken for the recovery of arms,” that the police party concerned was “ambushed by militants” and that “in exchange of fire the militant who was being taken for the recovery of arms was killed” or that “in the cover of darkness the militant escaped with, handcuffs on.” However, policemen are rarely reported to have been: injured in such incidents and a survey of Punjab press reports from Jan.1,1991 to Feb.28,1993 showed that in 169 “encounters” which had taken place in such circumstances no members of the security forces been killed, although over 266 persons described as militants were reportedly killed in those “encounters.” Although the bodies of victims of such killings are often not returned to the families, this in fact happened in the case of Avtar Singh and his body showed clear evidence that he was tortured and most probably killed in custody by the police.

Article extracted from this publication >>  August 20, 1993