This is a shocking story of a young Sikh who was picked up, kept in illegal detention for 10 days and subjected to severe torture by Ludhiana police. He was a hemophilia patient. At that time, he was running a small poultry farm to earn his livelihood. His elderly parents were dependent on his earnings. As a result of torture and prolonged incarceration, he was impaired and crippled. All efforts by his hapless father to rescue his son from the state brutality yielded no results.
The Sikh youth is Gurbir Singh of Ghungrana village in Ludhiana district of Punjab. He is now 28. He along with his father visited the PHRO office at Ludhiana on Jan.20, 1992 after he was cither acquitted or discharged by the courts and recorded his woes as follows:
I am a Sikh by faith, and keep my unshorn hair. I was running a poultry farm with 2000 birds in a rented shed at Qila Raipur, a village adjoining Ghungrana. On March 31, 1987 at about 10 p.m., I was picked up from my shed by Manjit Singh, the then SHO, Dehlon who came there with truckloads of police men. After a beating at the spot, the police took me to the police station where I was mercilessly tortured till 3 a.m. Inspite of the fact that was a patient of hemophilia and I had told them too, the police hung me upside down by passing a rope under my shoulders. The torture went on with some rest every 15 minutes.
Next day, early in the morning, the police took me to my residence in Ghungrana village and thoroughly searched the house but nothing incriminating was found.
I was kept in the Dehlon police station for six days and subjected to severe torture. Then | was taken to Sahnewal police station, There was given a similar treatment of torture by the then SHO Balbir Chand Tiwari, He threatened my liquidation and asked me 10 cat whatever | wanted to cat before meeting my end, They told me that Was a follower of Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale and as such i would be eliminated, They also alleged that I had been providing shelter to Jarnail Singh Halwara, Darshan Singh Dalla and many other Sikh militants, I could not satisfy their imagination because no militant ever visited my place. After few days, I was sent back to Dehlon police station.
After keeping me in illegal detention, the police produced me in the court of Bhagwan Singh, JMIC, Ludhiana on April 9 falsely charging (FIR No 59 dated 9-4-87 under TADA) that a bomb and a revolver were recovered from me and that I had harbored certain militants, | was sent to Ludhiana jail and was locked in the Kasuri Chakki (a dark room, measuring 6×4 feet) for a month, I used to be taken out only once a day for taking bath. After about a month, I was transferred to Nabha high security jail. “‘Nabha jail was no better. There we were tear-gassed and the jail security guards resorted to firing, in the air just to frighten us. Once, we were tear gassed, only because the jail authorities wanted to transfer two inmates Gurjit Singh and Balbir Singh from Nabha to Raipur jail in a far off Madhya Pardash state, All the inmates fell sick (news clippings of daily Ajit produced),
While in Nabha jail, I made an application for bail, To obstruct my bail, another case of theft (FIR No 26 dated 6-2-87, Civil Lines Police Station, Ludhiana) was planted on me could be bailed out after 16 months of incarceration and that too on the jail doctor’s recommendation as I could not be treated for haemophilia in jail.
When I was released, the Nabha police picked me up from the very gate of the jail, After two days, the police took me to Dehlon police station. Next day, i was produced before an executive magistrate at Ludhiana and described as a habitual offender, I was let off on bail the same day, The police could not produce any evidence for six months and the court discharged me.
On Jan.16, 1991, 1 was acquitted of the theft charge. In the case under TADA, the Additional Designated Court of BS Bedi acquitted me on Jan, 2,1992.
After my release from the jail, my father immediately took me to PGI, Chandigarh for medical treatment. Despite our best efforts. I could not recover fully. I have become a cripple because of the police torture. My right leg is now shorter. I cannot stand. Because of the upside down hanging by the police, my right shoulder does not work, The doctors say that I cannot be treated any more because of the haemophilia. I was picked up several times by the police during the last two years despite the fact that I was in a bad shape. Whenever there is any violent activity in the area or a strike call by Sikh groups, the police do pick me up. I now live, under the shadow of police terror.”
Gurbir Singh’s father Raghbir Singh, who accompanied his son to the PHRO office, said:” When Gurbir came out of Nabha jail, he was a wreck. On the advice of the jail doctor, I took him to the PGI. We stayed there for weeks. After urine tests, Gurbir was given plasma daily. The police torture had impaired his whole body.”
Retired as a government teacher, Raghbir Singh told the PHRO officials that he did plead to the State authorities including DGP J F
Ribeiro and the district DC and SSP at the time of his son’s arrest that he, being a patient of haemophilia (a constitutional tendency to excessive bleeding when any blood-vessel is even slightly injured), could not bear the police torture and that he was innocent but no relief was given by anyone. This is not an isolated case of torture or police brutality.
There are thousands of such cases Punjab. Dozens of Sikh youths are being picked up daily by the police — and the Indian security forces and tortured in police stations and torture chambers. Some of them die during torture. Others are often shot dead in cold blood in Staged police encounters; Does the world have any sympathy with these victims of state oppression? Does it have any means to put an end to this state barbarity? Are the nations, who have respect for human rights, willing to come forward and ask India to see reason? Or do they still prefer trade? If not, then they should come forward and take Up the matter.
D.S.Gill Chairman
Article extracted from this publication >> May 29, 1992
