The shocking tort tire of two women in Batala has once again made it clear that in Punjab the security forces continue to transgress the law.
POLICE: atrocities pled on terrorist massacres have numbed sensitivities and thickened hides in Punjab.
But from time to time. the dam of despair bunts and the anger spills out into the streets last fortnight. when the Punjab Police showed the ugly side of its face by Whiling torture on two marred women—one a mother of four and the other three the dam burst once again.
People in all corners of the state gave vent to their frustration by staging dharnas outside police stations So complete was the condemnation that a usually unyielding administration had to transfer the official held responsible. the sm. Batala Gobind Ram. throwing anti-terrorist activity in the area completely out of gear.
Government Siddhartha Shankar Ray told INDIA Today that he proposed to get a senior woman officer tram Delhi to pre-vent excesses on women “I have spoken to Buta Singh about sending Kirin Bedi to Punjab “still. Ray defended Gobi Ram saying he had done excellent anti-terrorist work at Batala but added that he did not condone his methods. Said he: “I am having him out of Punjab like three four others who have become sadists due to the extraordinary situation ”
But even the unique situation In the state does not justify the treatment meted out to the two women. Gurdev Kaur and Gurmeet Kaur. both in their 30s On August 21. the two women were picked up from their office in an Amritsar finance company. where they worked as clerks. and taken to a closed factory in Ueda. now used as a police intern tenth In centre. According to Gurdev Kaur. Gobind Rain was among those who hit them with a stick. demanding information oil the whereabouts of their husbands Knits ant Singh and Mahe) Singh. both suspected of terrorist activity. Says she: “When we said we didn’t know. we were whipped and made to he down with tour men standing on wooden plank which was placed across our thighs.”
While Gurdev Kaur was released the next evening. Gunned Kaur—a mother of three. whose husband has been missing for the last live sears—w cut through the ordeal for another week. Both are now bed-ridden and in excruciating pain. Worse is the psychological stress the memories. and the constant fear they live in Says Gurmeet Kaur “At one stage I thought they were going to skin me alive.”
According to Gurdev Kaur. her husband. Kulwant Singh was an officer in a bank. Ile was deeply religious but had nothing to do with terrorism. But repeated stints of illegal detention saw him absconding two years ago. “We have not seen Min since.- she sobbed. adding: “My four children it he youngest is seven years old) can testify to it..”
The jathedar of the Akal Takht. Professor Darshan Singh Ragi—who had spearheaded the campaign for Gobind Ram’s removal—declared that the episode would make anyone familiar with Indian culture revolt. Said he how does the police expect an Indian woman to sign the death warrant of the father of her children howsoever bad he might be Details of the torture send shivers down my spine.”
The public outcry over the Batala outrage was fuelled further by the fact that lust in May this year. a firm commit men( had been ‘men by the administration that women would not be detained in police stations in order to force their male relatives over ground. Ray made this promise after two teen aged girls—Sunnite’. Kaur and Narinder Kaur-were harassed tone of them allegedly molested too) by some policemen in Malitha. This episode had even embarrassed the Indian Government abroad. It was taken up with the Indian Embassy in Washington by a US Congressman. Don Burton—described as an “anti-Indian politician” in official correspondence—who considered it a grave human rights violation. So when the Batala incident came to light. the Inspector General internal security). R.I.. Wadhwa. reiterated that instructions had already been issued that women would not be called to police stations for questioning. “Severe action will be taken against the delinquents, he announced.
BUT it seems unlikely that aside from a transfer any disciplinary action will be taken against the policemen concerned. Particularly as the Director-General of Police, K.P.S. Gill—considered to be favorably disposed towards Gobind Ram—now says that they had definite information that the two women were planning acts of terrorism. Sube Singh. Inspector General (crime), added that Gurmeet Kaur’s name figured in three cases. Including the bomb blast in Batala’s Chakri Bazar some months ago. while another senior officer claimed that the husbands of the two were the “think-tanks” of a well-known terrorist group. Even before the furore over the Batala outrage could die down another incident of torture came into public view. Baldev Singh of Shapur village in Amritsar district and a salesman in a cooperative society was picked up by the Chowk Mehta police on April 18. He was released (allowing a high court order, then again the worked away by the police. Again the high court intervened and he was finally produced before a judge on August 25. He told a tale of brutal torture which has left him a virtual skeleton with broken legs. The court ordered his immediate hospitalization the poll, in its part gave no officials explanation Ion his illegal detention though sources said that it was a case of mistaken identity.
Police highhandedness obviously stems from the simple fact that they can get away with it. Take the Brahmpura incident in December 1986, when it was proved beyond doubt that a CRPF posse had used excessive force while searching a village and even molested a woman. “Three cart awaits were picked up for punishment. A lance-naik was demoted two ranks for three years. two increments of a head constable were withheld for two years and the third was dealt with in the orderly room by the commandant. Isn’t this a mockery of the rule of law?” asks a senior official. There have in fact, been about a dozen magisterial inquiries in which police officials have been indicted. All have been swept under the carpet. While the police get away scot-free. even those proved innocent continue to suffer in Punjab’s hellfire. Take the fate of the released Jodhpur detenus. They are precariously placed between the devil and the deep sea. The police still harbour suspicions about them while the terrorists believe that having been jailed for long, they can be banked upon for support.
The upshot: at least a dozen of the 300 detenus released from Jodhpur jail after five years of internment hate absconded due to police harassment just last week. Gurmukh Singh of Sapadhi village in Ludhiana district wrote to the governor that his son. Darshan Singh. released in November last year had left home due to persistent police pressure.
Another former detainee Avtar Singh from Sur Singh village in Amritsar district, wrote to Kay last month. “I have not yet got a penny against the promised payment of Rs 3000. I wish to bring to your notice that I am picked up at random by the police. Last time the police took me and kept me in illegal custody without any ease from July 28 to August 7 .I seek your help.” The Rai Mawan ordered the police to submit a report on the case within five days. A month has passed since then. And in all likelihood Avtar Singh will never get a reply as many key officials in Punjab still believe that an eye for an eye is the only way to curb terrorism regardless of the fact that a few innocents may get blinded in the a cross-firs. The governor’s advisor Ribeiro says that it was a mistake to have wilt Gobind Rant to Batala in the first place Says he: “I am against brutailisation of the police force.
Unfortunately Ribeiro has been asked to keep his hands off the polite department, only intelligence reports and transfer proposals of police officers are sent up to him. And in the case of Gobind Ram even his transfer file was not sent to Ribeiro.
This was in all probability done at Gill’s insistence. Earlier too, is licit Gobind Ram was in the dock for beating, up village sarpanches in Batala district. Gill had backed hint to the hilt: he had reportedly threatened to quit if Gobind Ram was shifted. This time too Gill was apparently
