TARN TARAN: The police are on a spot following the death of a youth, Gurdev Singh, during illegal detention at the Karchha Pacca police post last week. Two postmortems subsequently conducted on the body, one at the civil hospital at Patti and later by a team of senior doctors at the Guru Nanak Dev Hospital here, established that Gurdey Singh sustained more than 27 wounds due to police excesses which could possibly have been the cause of his death. A case was registered against three police officers, including a DSP, Mandir Singh.
People of the village have, however, demand a CBl inquiry as they feel that the police might attempt to shield their officers. Earlier, the villagers had forced the authorities to conduct a second postmortem on the body since the first report did not categorically mention the possible cause of the death of Gurdey Singh.
Gurdev Singh was one of the four persons detained illegally by the police for interrogation in the Lakhwinder Singh murder case. Lakhwinder Singh, a resident of Akbar pura, had been missing since July 8. His body was found in a village canal on July 14 following which the police registered a case of murder against the four persons, including Harbir Singh, sarpanch of the village. All four persons were allegedly subjected to third degree methods for more than 10 days. Harbir Singh alleged that he had been falsely implicated in the case. He admitted that he had differences with Lakhbir Singh’s younger brother. “But that would never have prompted me to commit Lakhbir’s murder,” he said.
Some people of the village said that Lakhbir Singh, a liquor addict, was last seen at the police post on July 8 having liquor with a police havildar. They suspect that Lakhbir might have died within the police post premises that night following which his body was disposed of by the police in the canal flowing nearby. A junior police official also did not rule out the possibility of Gurdev Singh being subjected to excesses as the police officials wanted him to confess to Lakhbir’s murder. The matter was brought to the notice of DIG (border range) B.S. Sandhu and SSP Gurcharan Singh. Both officers assured the people’s delegations that no harm would be done to the detainees. Himalayas in 1962 and the border issue remain unresolved. Shen said the Chinese and Vietnamese ministers had both “expressed their willingness to solve their problems in a proper way.” He said negotiations between the two countries, which fought a brief war in 1979, had reached “differing degrees of progress.” Asked where the main problem lay, Shen said the Bei Hai Gulf, which is also known as the Gulf of Tonkin.
Ments could not be traced. Meanwhile, the case took an interesting turn when the prosecution filed an affidavit on behalf of Y.S. Ratra, who was secretary to the Punjab government stating that a semiofficial letter dated August8, 1988, along with annexures was sent under the signatures of R.P. Ojha to the union government in regards to a starred question. In the Rajya Sabha. During the cross examination of Ojha which resumed last week, the. former Chief Secretary recognized the signatures of the former governor, S.S. Ray, adviser J.F. Ribeiro and home secretary, S.L. Kapoor, on the file regarding the Rajya Sabha question, Mr. Ojha, however, could not recollect if the file was put up before him. He wanted the original file with his original signatures to give his testimony.
Article extracted from this publication >> July 31, 1996
