There is a strong wave of resentment at police barbarism even as the police in the now notorious Batala district are trying to hush up
a case of the kidnaping rape and murder, of two minor Sikh girls one daughter of a granthi (priest) committed by two Hindu police men. One, Parshotam Dev was from the Punjab Armed Police and the other, Roshan Lal, a Special Police Officer (S.P.O.) based in the S.P.O of the picket outside Bhan village.
Batala district has been cited for the most blatant human rights violations by the police by human rights organizations. The pickets are not manned by ordinary police but by paramilitary forces.
Nearly a month after the kidnaping rape and murder of Salwinder Kaur 13 and Sarabjit Kaur 14, the police is still not taken any action against the culprits, even though they have been identified The police say that action could only be taken after some reports are received from the chemical examinations in Patiala. Not only has no department action been taken against them, a case of rape and murder has not even been filed against the two culprits, inspite of the Deputy Commissioner S.S. Sathrao asking S.S. P Gobind Ram to do so. All Ram did was to order an investigation by S.P Anil Kumar Sharma.
Meanwhile the police beat up the parents of the girls to make them say they had committed suicide. The Sri Hargobindpur police had even tried to hand over the bodies to the Municipal Corporation for cremation saying that they were Jawaris (unclaimed). The timely intervention of the Sub Divisional Magistrate (SDM) Batala settled the move.
The whole area is burning with resentment at the attempted cover up and the intimidation of the victims’ families by the so called “guardians of the law.”
On the morning of June 11 Salwinder Kaur, a student of eighth grade in the Bhan village school went with her friend Sarabjit Kaur to a nearby canal to fetch some clay for a school project. They returned around 10:30 a.m. and left soon after for another sortie. This time they did not come back.
When Salwinder’s father Joginder Singh who is the granthi in the village Gurdwara, and a retired Army jawan returned home around midday he inquired about the children.
On discovering that his daughter was missing he went to the house of Makhan Singh Sarabjit’s father to inquiry about Salwinder.
finding both the girls missing, both went out in their search. But dispute frantic efforts to trace them throughout the day, they failed.
Next morning both the fathers went to Hargobindpur and informed the police about the incident. The Station House Officer of Hargobindpur R.L, Bagga refused to register their missing person’s report and told them to continue the search.
Meanwhile the picket where the SPO’s were posted had been removed because of the verification of complaints of the residents of the village, that the cops were eye teasing and often drunk on duty.
On the night of June 16 the police came to the village and asked the parents to come and identify the two bodies found in a drain. Despite the request by the villagers that the identification be done in the morning, the police did not agree.
About 50 people then left for Hargobindpur with the sarpanch (headman). Two naked decomposed bodies were lying in a mini bus. A torch was given to identify the faces. “I covered the bodies with my turban, the police then asked us to accompany the bodies to Batala for a post mortem,” says Joginder Singh with tears in his eyes.
The police took them to the civil hospital in Batala on June 17 and instructed them to tell the hospital authorities that they were just helping the police to lift the bodies and that the bodies were unclaimed. The aim of the police was to get the post mortem done and then hand over the bodies to the municipal authorities for cremation so that the identity of the girls was not proved and the care would be easily hushed up.
The villagers refused to do so and they were beaten up by the cops in the hospital itself. The S.D.M intervened and allowed them to take the bodies for cremation.
The police then tried to force them to sign a statement that the girls had committed suicide and when they refused to do so, the victim’s parents and a friend were again tortured. They showed their backs to the newsmen where the police had repeatedly hit them. Sarabjit’s father Makhan Singh’s was picked up again and tortured the next day.
It was only when the villagers went to the Deputy Commissioner, that a case was finally registered. They also tried to meet the state governor On June 19 but the police stopped them and beat them up.
When a correspondent met them, they said, “We have no faith that we will ever get any justice.”
Article extracted from this publication >> July 14, 1989
