(Courtesy: The Sikh Review,
Murali Krishnan) For some time now, there has been a Steady corrosion in the credibility of the civil rights record of the Punjab police. The infamous abduction of a newly married couple in Ropar early last year, the thrashing given to journalists in a five star hotel in New Delhi in July, the tattooing on the foreheads of pick pockets and their role in the recent Kattia affair are some instances that illustrate the gross misuse of power in Punjab. Recently plain-clothes policemen from Punjab abducted one Raj Kumar of Amarpura locality in Landhiana and three other persons when they were appearing as witnesses in n habens corpus petition before the session’s judge in the Punjab
& Haryana high court. In true film style police personnel with masked faces whisked the foursome into a waiting Ambassador car and sped away
In the process, the image of the Director General of Punjab Police, has certainly taken a beating, notwithstanding his claims to have wiped out terrorism in the state. His subsequent objective of sensitizing the state police force has, in fact, had the opposite effect. KPS Gill’s trigger happy men have thrown caution to the winds, by indulging in wanton acts of violence and other kinds of abuse of power which have provoked even the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) to comment adversely on their functioning
The strictures passed by the Supreme Court in mid-September against Gill for a case concerning the abduction of family of seven from Amritsar on October 29, 1991 puts the spotlight on the police force’s naked use of aggression. This is perhaps the first time that the apex court has come down so heavily on Gill during his three-year tenure as the state’s police chic
The division bench comprising Chief Justice A.S. Anand and Justice S.P. Bharucha directed CBI director, Vijaya Ram Rao to personally investigate the case and submit a report within a month. The CBI will have to report on the circumstances of the abduction, whether the family of Sinder Singh has been done away with and the cover up operation launched by the police.
The apex court also commented on the “high-handed and unchecked power of the police force” and reiterated that it was not entrusting the investigation to the Punjab police since its credibility had reached a nadir.
The habeas corpus petition filed on July 29, 1994 before the Supreme Court by Inder Singh, son of Sadhu Singh, who was abducted along with six family members, states that Baldev Singh, Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP). Gurdaspur, barged into his house and ordered his family members to line up in the courtyard. Baldev Singh had suspected that his brother, who had been kidnapped by militants, was abducted in connivance with inder Singh’srelatives,
All members pleaded ignorance, but the DSP huddled them into a police Gypsy car and took them away. For four days. Inder Singh and his wife, Daljeet Kaur frantically visited various police Stations, including Kathuanangal Chowk Mehta and Mal Mandl in Amritsar district. Those abducted were finally tracked down to Fatehgarh
Senior advocate R.S. Sodhi, who represented Inder Singh, says, “Be met the chief minister, Union Cabinet ministers, senior police officer and district officials, but nobody as much as lifted a finger” Four members of the family Hardev Devinder Sukhdev and Sharanjil – were last spotted on January 8. 1992 in a police vehicle “Though the state was acting in a brutal manner, the Punjab & Haryana High Court proved no less spineless. Even the habeas corpus petitions were not given any notice,” adds Sochi. “
When the Supreme Court issued a show cause notice to DSP Baldev Singh in July this year, he denied the entire story and demanded the dismissal of Inder Singh’s petition. The only thing Baldev Singh admitted was that he knew where Inder Singh lived because the house was situated 300 yards from his OWTI
DGP. KPS Gill absolves himself by stating that he took over as police chief on January 25, 1992 and therefore had no personal knowledge of the case. His personal assistant received the complaint and passed in on to the DIG who found nothing in it He, in turn, passed it on to another SP.” says Sodhi. In this way the matter was delayed for 18 months. It was only on February 17 this year that the SSP of Majitha responded. And he revealed that Baldev Singh had been “absconding
The Chief Justice has observed that the Punjab police made no efforts to trace the missing people, and that it was obviously involved in illegally detaining the seven persons within the precincts of its police stations.” Justice Venkatchalaiah further lambasted Gill’s as section to treat the incident as an individual aberration on the part of the force
Lawyer Sodhi, for one, is convinced that all seven members of Inder Singh’s family were killed by the police on December 14, 1992 rob orate the police version of events leading to a detainer’s death.
Such cases of deaths in custody are not isolated incidents but occur throughout India and continue to occur despite official government condemnation.
The Clinton Administration’s initial reservations (though ultimately abandoned) about doing business with the human rights violators in Beijing were on target; similar red flags should also be raised about increased business activity with New Delhi. India desperately needs direct American investment. The U.S. should use this leverage to insure that, before any further business deals between the U.S. and India are consummated, India takes concrete, veritable steps to improve its human rights record by cracking down on torture carried out by police and security forces and by insuring that the families of those victimized by this abuse be fairly and promptly compensated.
Only when India takes such measures to protect human rights and the rule of law can “the world’s largest democracy” be legitimately considered such.
Article extracted from this publication >> February 24, 1995
