SRIHARGOBINDPUR, Punjab – A gruesome incident of rape and murder of two minor girls, allegedly by a Punjab Armed Police constable who was deployed at the special police officers (SPO) picket in Bham village, 9km from here, has left the people of this sensitive area of Batala police district shocked and agitated.

The decomposed bodies of Sarabjit Kaur(14) and Salwinder Kaur(13), a class Vill student, who had disappeared under mysterious circumstances from the village on June 11, were recovered by the police from a water-filled drain near here on June 16. The parents of the victims and a section of the villagers whom this correspondent met yesterday alleged that the two were kidnapped by the said police constable who strangled them to death after brutally raping them. Later he disposed of their bodies.

The persistent refusal of the police to register an FIR(First Information Report) against the policeman, whose name figures in the preliminary complaint lodged by the parents, and attempts to “hush up” the case have led to strong resentment among the villagers. When repeated requests and representations by the aggrieved parents to police officials from the SHO to the SSP level failed to bring the culprit to book, a delegation of panchayat members tried to meet the Punjab Governor, Mr. S.S. Ray, who was in the nearby town of Kalansur on June 19. However, the police did not allow them to meet the Governor.

Agitated, the villagers went to the Deputy Commissioner, Mr. S.S. Sudharao, demanding a probe into the incident and also action against those policemen who added insult to injury by severely beating up the father of one of the girls when he refused to give in writing that it was suicide case. Taking serious note of the incident, the Deputy Commissioner wrote to the S.S.P., Mr. Govind Ram, to conduct an enquiry into the circumstances leading to the death of the two girls who belonged to poor families. He also asked the police chief to register an FIR.

Although the police has rounded up two persons – Purshotam Dev, a PAP constable, and Roshan Lal, an SPO – no case has yet been registered against them. Mr. Govind Ram has’ deputed Mr. Anil Kumar Sharma, SP (Headquarters), to probe into the incident.

Narrating the sequence of events, Mr. Joginder Singh, a retired Army man and father of Salwinder, said his daughter, along with her friend Sarabjit had gone to the outskirts of village to take clay from the dry canal bed on June 11. The two, however, did not turn up by the evening. When frantic search by the worried parents led to nowhere, they lodged a complaint in the police station here. They expressed suspicion against a police constable who was in charge of the SPO picket in the village before it was removed by the police Officials on persistent complaints by the villagers. The said constable was seen roaming under mysterious circumstances near the village hours before the girls disappeared by Mr. Makhan Singh, father of Sarabjit.

Later, Mr. Govind Ram admitted that he had received complaints of drinking and eve-teasing by the SPO men during a surprise visit to the village in the first week of June.

Holding back his tears Joginder Singh said that despite a number of visits to the Police station by him and panchayat members, no FIR was registered against the suspect on the plea that the case would be registered after the girls were recovered – dead or alive. On June 16, a police party took the parents of the missing girls for identification of the two bodies which were recovered in the evening.

True to the fears of the parents, the bodies were of their daughters. The police did not even bother to cover the bodies, which were without clothes and decomposed. “I took off my turban to cover the naked girls,” said Joginder Singh, sobbing uncontrollably.

In order to complete the postmortem formalities, the bodies were taken to the Civil Hospital, Batala, on June 17, where the accompanying police party tried to force the parents not to lay claim to the bodies and declare them unidentified in front of the hospital doctor. However, the parents refused to do so and approached the SDM for handing over the bodies.

All this while the police party contacted the Municipal Committee(Council) of the town and asked for the cremation of the “unidentified and unclaimed” bodies of the two girls. When Makhan Singh, tather of Sarabjit and Gurdial Singh, brother of Salwinder, resisted the lifting of the bodies from the mortuary, the police party beat them up in the hospital premises. It was only after their hue and cry and intervention by the people around that the police relented and left the place. Later, the SDM intervened and the bodies were handed over to the parents.

A farm labourer, Makhan Singh was picked up from the village on the same night and was again beaten up in the police station at Srihargobindpur. Showing his legs to show the torture marks, the dazed Makhan Singh said policeman were forcing him to give in writing that the girls had committed suicide. When the police failed to have its way he was released the next day. The parents again approached the SSP, demanding action against the culprits, but to no avail. “Our hopes for justice were dashed to the ground when the police did not allow us to meet the Punjab Governor at Kalanur,” said Makhan Singh.

Mr. Govind Ram, however, feigned ignorance about the beating up of the parents of the deceased girls by the police but assured to look into this. He persisted that no attempt was made to hush up the case. The sustained interrogation of the PAP constabie, he said, had not revealed anything except that he had an affair with one of the girls.

-The Tribune July 8, 1989