AMRITSAR: A cat-and-mouse game is being played between the police and militants acquitted by the courts in this border district.

Due to the high rate of bails and an incredibly low rate of conviction under the Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act the police have lately taken recourse to a peculiar and extra-judicial method of re arresting the accused militants.

The modus operandi is that once an accused is granted bail or let off from the jail the special police parties whisk him away. Later fresh charges are framed against him $o as to keep him behind bars.

This arrest-release-re arrest game has caused a tiff between the police and the judiciary which is already annoyed over the dealing of the militant cases.

How desperate the police is to keep those. whom it considers hardcore militants in custody despite the court’s decision can be gauged from the fact that every morning the police parties belonging to the Amritsar Tarn Taran and Majitha police districts position themselves outside the main gate of the high-security Central Jail to re-arrest those charged under the TADA Act.

Such attempts by the police have created a piquant situation within the court premises and outside the jail with the released persons resisting the re-arrest.

Less than two weeks ago a scuffle took place between the Sikh Students Federation workers and the police when the latter tried to apprehend the federation leader Bhai Virsa Singh Valtoha soon after he was released from jail on the bail.

Recently the police had to face an embarrassing situation in its attempt to rearrests the SSF Chief Bhai Rajinder Singh

Mehta who was granted bail on July 30 As the court gave its probe in cement an ASL tried to take him into custody in the court room itself.

Incensed at the police behavior the judge himself intervened and threatened the police official of action for contempt of court if the bailed person was re-arrested in the court premises In the melee that ensued Bhai Mehta managed to slip away from the rear door much to the discomfiture of the police

A significant fallout of the polices action is that a number of accused militants fearing re-arrest under fresh charges are not applying for bail. Ironically the militants facing even less serious charges prefer to stay in the jail rather than coming out.

Many a time the decision of the courts it is pointed out is much against the wishes of the police Little wonder the relations between the two have been far from cordial with each side accusing the other of the non-cooperative altitude

Of late the police-judiciary ties have taken a turn for worse with allegations of corrupt Practices against certain judges by the police. A top police official had recently confided to this correspondent that a diary seized from a slain militant in Tam Taran had the name of a judge written in it to whom Rs 30000 were reportedly paid for getting the bail of an accomplice.

How far such allegations based on the militant’s diary are correct is difficult to ascertain.

The legal reasons for the high rate of acceptance of bail applications and the Subsequent acquittal are not far to seek. A perusal of the ground applied by the courts while taking such decisions clearly show the inept handling of the prosecution proceedings by the police even in the TADA

Ina numbers of cases the ball applications of the accused are accepted simply of the failure of the police to present the challan within the prescribed limits of 90 days in ordinary cases or one year in the terrorist cases after the date of arrest.

In numerous cases the police fail to produce the case files in the court despite notices by the prosecution In such cases the law entitles the accused of being given bail or even acquitted. Though such lapses are regularly brought to the notices of the SSPs concerned yet no action has been taken against the police personnel responsible for weakening the case

Another reason for the frequent bails in the militant cases is the pending of the trial for a long period and the failure of the prosecution to conclude the evidence.

More often than not the trials get investigations by the police This is so despite the fact that the state is duty-bound to expedite the trial.

In a large number of cases it is pointed out the police had failed to produce sufficient evidence to link the crime with the accused The public witnesses either abstain from the courts or simply retract from the earlier statements made before the police

In a number of cases even the police personnel shown as witnesses in the FIR have turned hostile during the trail. One such recent case pertains to the Majitha police whose ASI and a head constable withdrew their earlier statement that they were eyewitness to the murder of two policemen by Lt-General of KC Malkiat Singh Ajnala now under detention Ajnala was one of the accused arrested from the Golden Temple complex during Operation Black Thunder in 1988. It is on these grounds that the Operation Black Thunder accused here been granted bail in most of the eases All the 46-odd sunder trials have already been discharged of the main case relating to the waging of war against the country by the Court on the ground of insufficient evidence against them Consequently many of those still lodged: in the jail are likely to be bailed out. How the jail during the trial period would not be included in the sentences term.

Article extracted from this publication >> August 9, 1991