There is a typical case of this Nature. According to a complaint made to the Deputy Commissioner Amnitsar two name-sakes (One Harpal Singh belonging to Gaggerwal and another to Waring Mohanpur villages in Tam Taran area) were picked up from the house of a bank manager in Mohni Park locality near Khalsa College.

Amritsar in the afternoon of October 3 last year The two youths according to their parents had gone to the city on October 3 to attend to domestic chores and they were not wanted by the police in any case. Harpal Singh of Warring Mohanpur was employed in a private firm at Tam Taran Both were married and had one child each.

The next day (October 4) there was a report-published in a newspaper about two unidentified youths having been killed in an encounter with the police in the Sultanwind locality during the intervening night.

Sensing foul play the parents approached an Akali leader Harbhajan Singh Sandhu who enquired from the local police. The police at first denied having taken any Harpal Singh in custody. But later a senior officer confirmed that the two were “let off” after a few hours of detention.

Enquiries with the police about the identity of the youths killed in the city on the night of October 3 did not yield anything. Mounting public pressure made the police show the photographs of the “killed unidentified militants” whose bodies was cremated without being declared unclaimed for at least 24 hours.

The parents recognized the photographs as those of their missing words. The police however insisted that the youths were not named Harpal Singh and refused to show the clothes of the deceased to their parents.

The matter was taken up with the Deputy Commissioner by several local leaders but nothing came out. It was on the intervention of the then State Chief Secretary S.L.Kapoor that a magisterial inquiry was ordered into the episode.

The enquiry conducted by the Sub Divisional Magistrate L.D.Hans has clearly established that the youths were rounded up by the police without the registration of any case against them.

Article extracted from this publication >> September 13, 1991