In his report given on Oct.30 the High Court judge said that the Moharrir Head Constable of the Dera Baba Naka police Station had claimed the six men went to the police station of their own accord to meet the Station House Officer on Oct.11 (the day they were found in the police station by the warrant officer). The SHO was not there so they had been asked to sit in the room where they were found. The Judge concluded: “There appears to be no force in this contention (the police claim) as in case the alleged detainees wanted to simulate their confinement at the police Station then there was no question of Jaswant Singh and Chanan Singh missing therefrom”. The judge also said there was no evidence that the PHRO or the seven detainees had any motive to falsely implicate the police of that particular police station and ruled “there is no escape but to conclude that the above-referred persons were being illegally detained” The judge ordered the police officers in charge to pay 5000 Rupees compensation to each of the five men. The whereabouts of Chanan Singh and Jaswant Singh are still not known.

Jasbir Singh

Members of the security forces as well as the police hold people in unacknowledged detention. Jasbir Singh a 20-yr-old man from Bhikki Bhatinda District was arrested in front of local villagers on Feb.6, 1990 by CIA officers believed to be from Rampura. No reason was given for his detention. Several witnesses made sworn statements to the court that they had seen Jasbir Singh in detention of the CIA officers at Rampura between 6 and 13 February and that Jasbir Singh had told them that he had been tortured with the result that he passed blood with his urine. On Feb. 15 the warrant officer acting on orders of the High Court responding to a habeas corpus petition raided the C.I.A office Rampura and found Jasbir Singh and the CIA acknowledged his arrest but told the court it had taken place that day. The CJA had persistently denied any knowledge of his detention when family members inquired about him a week earlier.

‘Devi Dayal

In other cases habeas corpus petitions have failed to locate the “disappeared”. Devi Dayal’s petition was dismissed on technical grounds. On Nov.28 1990 the Punjab and Haryana High Court dismissed a habeas corpus petition brought by the President of the Ropar District Unit of the PHRO on behalf of Devi Dayal son of Chanan Singh post office Suron Rajpura Patiala district. The petitioner stated that Devi Dayal was held by CIA staff in the Rajpura police station and that the CIA refused to acknowledge the detention. He alleged that Devi Dayal had been beaten in custody. The High Court first dismissed the petition because the petitioner did not live in the same district as Chanan Singh. The petition was brought to court again the following day by the same petitioner and ‘one other. The High Court once more dismissed it this time on the grounds that the human rights group could not show how it was related to or interested in the fate of Devi Dayal. The court denied that his fate was a matter of public interest. It also refused to hear the petition because it did not identify any individual among the CIA staff as responsible for illegally detaining Devi Dayal.

As a result Devi Dayal’s whereabouts remain unknown. Amnesty International believes that indemnifying individual officers as responsible for illegal detentions as the High Court required is impossible in many cases because the police take effective steps to conceal their responsibility.

Parvinder Singh

In other cases the courts have simply upheld police denials that a “disappeared” person was in custody even when there were witnesses to the arrest and the identity of arresting officers was known.

Parvinder Singh the son of Chain Singh was 26-yrs-old at the time of his “disappearance” in August 1990. Married with two children he was working as a Lower Division Clerk in the Punjab State Electricity Board Balachor Hoshiarpur district.

On Oct.30 Chain Singh brought a habeas corpus petition on behalf of his son to the Punjab and Haryana High Court. The petition stated that Parvinder Singh was taken from his office at the Punjab State Electricity Board (PSEB) on Aug.3 by police officials including two Sub Inspectors (hereafter Sub Inspector A and B) and the Station House Officer at Balachor police station. Chain Singh said that he feared his son could be killed by the police in a fake “encounter”. He requested that the judge order the police to bring his son before the court for his release and that compensation be paid for keeping him in illegal detention.

An Executive Engineer at the PSEB witnessed the arrest and had described it in a letter to the Senior Superintendent of Police at Kapurthala written on Aug.9: “On dtd. 03/08/90 Addnl Station House Officer City Police Station p. unknown (perhaps named [Sub Inspector B}) accompanied with his squad and SHO Balachaur reached this office at about 10:00 a.m. and taken the above named official (Parvinder Singh) with them and told that ‘he is desired in connection with some enquiry/investigation of a case and will be free within a few minutes’. But it is surprised (surmised) that the official concerned has been kept under secret confinement by the City Police Bhagwara”

On Nov.11 the Sub Inspectors A and B made statements to the High Court in response to the habeas corpus petition. Sub Inspector A acknowledged that he went to arrest Parvinder Singh on Aug.31990 under the Arms Act and the Terrorist arid Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act at the office of the Punjab State Electricity Board and said he requested permission from a senior official of the Board Balwant Singh as Parvinder Singh’s employer to arrest him but that this was denied. Both he and Sub Inspector B claimed that they were only allowed to talk with Parvinder Singh for 15 minutes within the premises of the PSEB that they were not a is to arrest him and that they left Paryinder Singh in his office. Sub Inspector A told the court that Parvinder Singh was not in detention and had absconded to escape arrest.

On the basis of the police statements without further investigation the High Court dismissed the petition on Nov.20. Parvinder Singh’s father and his employers despite many enquiries and letters to police and state officials failed to establish why or where he was detained. His whereabouts remain unknown.

Ravail Singh son of Massa Singh

Ravail Singh was struck driver from Jabbowal Tehsil Baba Bakala village Amritsar district. On June 161990 atabout 3p.m. police officers from Jandiala police station came to his house searched it and took him to the police station Ravail Singh’s two brothers and a man from Muchhal village witnessed his arrest. Later that day Ravail Singh’s wife and brothers visited the office of the Station House Officer Jandial police station who denied that Ravial Singh had been arrested. His wife then visited the Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Majitha who also denied knowledge of Ravail Singh’s arrest.

On June 16 Ravail Singh’s wife appealed on his behalf to the Chief Justice of Punjab and Haryana High Court the Governor of Punjab the Chief Secretary of Punjab and the Director General of Police Punjab. On July 14 she sent further appeals to the Governor of Punjab the Director-Gencral of Police Punjab the Inspector General Border Range Amritsar and the Prime Minister of India.

On July 17 Ravail Singh’s relatives again visited the office of the SSP Majitha who asked them whether they had “moved any complaint to the High Court”. They told him that they had brought a habeas corpus petition. The SSP then apparently told them that Ravail Singh was being held in police custody and would be brought to count upon successful application of the petition. However to Amnesty International’s knowledge he was not brought to court the habeas corpus petition was dismissed and there is no information about Ravail Singh’s whereabouts or fate. The police have subsequently told the family thathe is “notin their custody” although some reports indicate he may be held in prison.

Baldev Singh of Warian village

In some cases the police have denied arresting people even though they were afterwards seen in custody by their relatives. In one case the victim was a boy of 15 at the time of his “disappearance”.

Baldev Singh then aged about 15 was arrested with his twin brother Kala Singh on October 16, 1988. When they were arrested the boys were watching television in the family home in Wanan Taran Taran Amritsar district The arrests were reportedly carried out by the Sarhali police and witnessed by other villagers. The police also took away the television set some clothes and some agricultural tools. No reason for their arrest was given.

Baldev Singh and Kala Singh’s mother went immediately to the Sarhali police station accompanied by the village leader of Dargapur. There both her sons and to hand over clo to them. Kala Singh was released 20 days later by the Sarhali police and the television set was also returned. The mother returned to the police station to ask about Baldev Singh but was reportedly told that he had been “taken by the Central Reserve Police Force for investigation”.

The mother then appealed to the Prime Minister of India and the then Governor of Punjab to establish Baldey Singh’s whereabouts. The governor informed her on Dec.51988 that he had forwarded her letter to the Deputy Inspector General of Police Grievances. No further progress has been made in the investigations and Baldev Singh’s relatives have been unable to establish his fate or his whereabouts. On Aug.201990 his relatives wrote to Amnesty International asking for assistance in tracing him.

Kushwinder Singh son of Shamsher Singh

In another case a man “disappeared” after being seen in custody by a fellow prisoner at the CIA interrogation center Patiala.

Kushwinder Singh is the second of three sons the youngest of whom Rajinder Pal Singh was killed in 1985 allegedly while in police custody Kushwinder Singh was arrested on Jan.261989 and released on bail in April 1989. His trial was set for July 211989. The night before the trial Kushwinder Singh and his father stayed with a relative in Madanpur near the court On July 21 while he and his father were waiting for a bus to take them to court for the trial armed men in plain clothes driving a van and a jeep without number plates seized Kushwinder Singh and forced him into the jeep. His father claims the armed men were led by an Inspector of the CIA Patiala

The family heard nothing about Kushwinder Singh until the end of Aug.1989 when a former detainee who had been arrested on the same day told them that he had been held with Kushwinder Singh in the CIA interrogation center Patiala until Aug.23. Kushwinder Singh’s father accompanied by a former member of the Punjab Assembly from Ropar went to the GIA staff office in Patiala where the father identified the Inspector who had arrested his son. The Inspector denied that he had taken Kushwinder Singh into custody.

The family received another report that Kushwinder Singh had been seen in custody this time from the wife of the relative in Madanpur with whom Kushwinder Singh and his father had stayed before the trial. She said that as she was returning home from the hospital in Chandigarh on Oct.26 she saw a person in handcuffs being led from the hospital and i into van by seven or eight policemen. She thought she recognized the person from behind as Kushwinder Singh and she called out name When he turned she definitely recognized him as Kushwinder Singh but the policemen escorting him continued to lead him away. Since then his family has received no further information about Kushwinder Singh His fate or where about remain unknown.

Article extracted from this publication >> September 13, 1991