CHANDIGARH: A Sikh MLC from UP, Kuldip Singh, alleged that the UP police had actually killed the six detainees of the Pilibhit jail in cold blood onNov.8 and then “cooked up the jailbreak theory,” to cover up the crime, Addressing media persons here recently, Kuldip Singh said that the UP government “should first prosecute the guilty officers and then instituting an enquiry either by sitting judge of the High Court. Or the CBI.
Singh said that the six killed were beaten to death in the precincts of the jail. He alleged that excesses on TADA prisoners, most of whom were Sikhs, had become commonplace.
He said that several of these prisoners were rich farmers who had been jailed for allegedly harboring militants. However, the truth was that militants took shelter from. Them at gunpoint. Now the police was extracting money from the, he added.
According to Kuldip Singh there ‘was a need to review the case of the 1147 TADA detainees, 705 of whom were Sikhs. The existing system of review by a DIG was ‘wrong as the police officers were invariably biased in their approach.
Singh disclosed that the Sikhs living in the Terai were feeling insecure as on one side they were being blackmailed by militants and on the other the state police was harassing them.
Article extracted from this publication >> November 25, 1994
