CHANDIGARH: The Punjab Chief Minister, Beant Singh, on March 1 admitted six custodial deaths in the state in the first five and a half months of his government but ruled out compensation to the dependents of the deceased.
Replying to supplementaries in the Vidhan Sabha on a question of Mrs.Vimla Dang, CPI, and Beant Singh said the deaths at the hands of extremists could not be equated with those in police custody.
Compensation was given to the dependents of persons killed by extremists but there was no such provision in the case of custodial deaths.
The Chief Minister provided the names of persons who had died in police custody during the period and also admitted that some of them had succumbed to interrogation. Inquiries were conducted into these deaths but no one was found guilty in three cases while two cases were under investigation. A case under section 302/ 304A/304B/34 IPC had been registered against three police officials who had been arrested in connection with the death of Balbir Kaur in Ropar police station.
The others who died under police custody were Hira Singh (Sudhar in Jagraon), Jarnail Singh (Div. No.4, Jalandhar), Amrit Lal (Chheharta, Amritsar), Sher Singh (Mulepur, Fatehgarh Sahib) and Baljit Kumar (Lalru, Patiala).
Article extracted from this publication >> March 5, 1993
