LUDHIANA: The International Human Rights Organization (IHRO) has sought immediate release of Nachhatur Singh Rode, a lifer confined in Sangrur jail, as he has undergone nearly 14 years of imprisonment.
IHRO Chairman D.S. Gill, in a letter to the Punjab Home Secretary, S.K. Bhatia, urged him to release Nachhatar Singh Rode, a life confined for murdering Lala Jagat Naruin, as all lifers who had completed 10 years of imprisonment, have already been set free by the Punjab government.
The organization, on behalf of the accused, has also written to Justice Ranganath Mishra, Chairman of the National Human Rights Commission of India, to take up this case with the Punjab Government for the accused had been discriminated against on different counts.
This was stated here by IHRO Administration Secretary Gurbhajan Singh Gill in a press note. He said Nachhaluar Singh was not granted parole even when his mother died in 1992. “At present, there is no prisoner in Punjab who has spent 14 years except him” he added.
According to his family members. Nachhatar Singh is being discriminated against only because of Sant Bhindrawale-as his village also happened to be Rode. He has been denied bclicr class’ and other jail facilities available to the lisers, said the statement
Nachhattar Singh’s relations alleged that he is being kept segregated from anchor prisoners and electric bulbs or 500 watts are always burnt in his cell. “As a result, his eye-sight has been affected and is feeling psychologically wrecked.”
“To further harass him, Nachhatlar was transferred to Jodhpur jailin 1992 and it was only on the intervention of Punjab and Haryana High Court that he could come back in August 1994.”
The Washington Times reports that Iran is only months away from completing a secret poison-gas complex and has secured the aid of Indian companies in the construction of the installation, according to a highly classified German intelligence report.
The report says Tehrun is now urgently seeking to procure from Western European firms high-tech equip meni essential for the production of two of the world’s most deadly nerve gases – Sarin and Tabun.
At least three Indian companies and four Tranan firms have remarked engineering companies in Germany in their search for corrosion-resistant channel reactors pipes and pumps, all crucial in the chemical production process of Sarin and Tabun, the report says.
The Indian companies, which were required to obtain export licenses for some of the equipment they sent to Iran, have told trade authorities in Europe and elsewhere that they are engaged in building a pesticide factory just outside Tehran,
Similar disclaimers were made by foreign companies including German ones that worked on the installation of Iraq’s Sa’ad 16 chemical warfare plant in the 1980s.
Sources at Germany’s external intelligence agency, the BND, say that Iran’s poison-gas complex has been two or three years in the planning and construction and that it is now nearing completion.
The German intelligence report, the latest in yearlong series detailing suspected German business involvement in Iran’s arms push, has been sent to Bernd Schmidbauer, Chancellor Helmut Kohl’s security adviser and Cabinet secretary.
The Indian companies named in the classified report include Tata Consulting Engineering. Transpek and
Rallis India.
The BND has informed Schmidbauer that these firms have been encouraged by Tehran to approach German. pharmaceutical and engineering concerns for equipment to convert the pesticide factory into a nerve-gas installation.
Article extracted from this publication >> February 3, 1995
