LUDHIANA: IHRO, General Secretary, Mr. Mohinder Singh Grewal, Human Rights Activist and prominent Ludhiana attorney, faced the threat of torture and received physical abuse from Indian Intelligence Agents and the Superintendent of Police(Ludhiana), Detective B.S. Gill during more than 40 hours of questioning while in custody, last week,

Mohinder Singh Grewal , Activist and attorney for Bhai Sukhminder Singh Sandhu and Bhai Ranjit Singh Gill (Sukhy and Kuky) who are currently incarcerated in the US for their alleged part in the assassination of Indian army General, A.S. Vaidya, recently sought the assistance of the THRO (Ludhiana) IHRO (North America) and WSN to stem the tide of harassment that he and his family have been subjected to by agents of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Intelligence Bureau (IB) of India, On his behalf, IHRO (NA) Coordinator, Gurdey S. Gill then contacted the N.Y. attorney rep resenting Bhai Sandhu and Bhai Gill in the US. The editors of WSN were also contacted in hopes that Mr. Grewal would not meet the same fate as Justice Ajit Singh Bains. (A respected and revered high court justice, whose family was harassed and threatened while he was jailed without charge, refused bail and abused in custody,.) AS of this writing, (March 31) more than 50 leaders, legislators, and MPs in the US and Canada, including President Clinton and Secretary General Bhoutros Galli of the UN have been advised of the situation. Numerous Human Rights organizations and the World Sikh Organization offices have been notified, Mr. Grewal’s abuse and the threats made against him have not gone unnoticed. Letters and calls asking that the Indian Ambassador to the US, Mr. S.S. Ray, and The Indian Prime Minister, Mr. Narsimha Rao, and officials of the various Indian Intelligence agencies involved investigate this reported abuse are awaiting reply.

The General Secretary, reported to the IHRO (Ludhiana) that on March 21 his 74yearold father, S. Rajinder Singh Grewal was taken into police custody for questioning about international phone calls received by the younger Mr.Grewal. After six hours of questioning he was released, upon the condition that his son Mohinder would appear the following day for questioning. On March 22, Mr. Mohinder Grewal appeared at the police station as requested, During three hours of intensive interrogation, unidentified agents demanded information about calls received from Sukhminder S.Gill, who is not only a client of Grewal’s but his first cousin as well, The General Secretary explained that his cousin called to ascertain the wellbeing of his (Sukhy’s) parents and other relatives, After the interrogation Grewal was kept for nearly nine hours more, without cause or charge. Upon his release he was told to appear the next day. On March 23, the investigating team was assisted by S.P. Detec live, B.S.Gill. For over two hours Mr.Grewal willingly cooperated with his questioners yet the S.P.was not satisfied to ask questions. He decided to resort to physical abuse and he pushed and slapped Mr.Grewal to further intimidate him.

As the policeman was raining blows down on Mr. Grewal’s head he accused the attorney of interfering in the investigation (or rather, non-investigation, of recently murdered advocate Kulwant Singh Saini who along with his wife and son were apparently killed by the police, as reported earlier by WSN.)

At the same time the S.P. threatened to subject Mr, Grewal to the kinds of torture that the IHRO has reported from other victims.

The S.P. said this would give Mr. Grewal the chance to make a ‘personal report’ of the torture and inhumane treatment meted out to vacuums of police brutality. The S.P. then said he would make sure that Mr. Darbara.S. Gill, the president of the IHRO (Ludhiana) would suffer the same fate as those he reported on.

Later that day, a police party raided the Grewal residence, took a personal phone directory and demanded the phone number used by Sukhminder S. Gill to contact his cousin, Mr, Grewal made several calls to IHRO officers in North America to advise them of his plight and ask for their assistance in getting the number used by Sukhy. Released after 12 hours, he was ordered to appear the next day.

On March 24th while in custody, Mr Grewal called IHRO (North America)coordinator, Mr. Gurdev S. Gill who gave the police the phone number of the N.Y. jail that Sukhy has called “home” for the past 5 years.

Another team of agents then took over the interrogation. For over four hours Mr, Grewal was questioned about the phone calls and his activities as a prominent lawyer and Human Rights activist. On the day his letter was received by a WSN source, he was preparing to return to the police station for further questioning.

It is imperative that the “Democratic” government of India investigate the abuse of a person whose apparent ‘crime’ is his work as a Human Rights activist and his relationship with his cousin languishing in a US jail.

Article extracted from this publication >>  April 2, 1993