The report confirmed the allegation that the detainees were systematically tortured in the course of their interrogation. Most of them had been arrested in June 1984 in the wake of the army action in Punjab from the Golden Temple, Amritsar and Gurdwara Dukh Niwaran, Patiala. The detainee’s originally included eight children, out of them four were subsequently released, three were shifted to other prisons and the only minor, Gurmeet Singh son of S. Gurbax Singh was still confined there under National Security Act. Two women inmates were shifted to Jodhpur.

The commission cited the affidavit of Shri Ajit Kumar, Special Secretary (Home) to Government of Punjab to corroborate this conclusion. It said: “It was necessary to interview these detainees in an atmosphere free from the immediate effect and vicinity of a large number of persons suspected to have acted similarly with the same motivation.”

The Commission opined that: “It appears from his (Ajit Kumar) affidavit that the detenues were to be tortured at a place where their cries of pain could not be heard by anybody outside the premises of torture. A palatial house at Ladha was built by Maharaja Bhupinder Singh of Patiala as a place for recreation away from any habitation. It was on account of its location at a lonely place that it was considered by the Government to be a fit place for the interrogation of criminals. It was thus converted into a jail so that detenues could be detained there and then tortured.

RECOMMENDATIONS

The Commission suggested action against twenty police officials, identified as having personally inflicted torture on various detenues, under different provisions of the Punjab Civil Services (Punishment and Appeal) Rules 1970.

It further suggested that the detenues who had been – tortured at Ladha Kothi be monetarily compensated. It recommended minimum of Rs. 10,000 to 17 detenues; Rs. 15,000 to 11 detenues who had been brought to Ladha Kothi twice and has also been tortured at Patiala and Nabha jails and Rs 20,000 each to two detenues.

MODES OF TORTURE

Many of the detenus were able to identify their torturers by names. Modes of torture included rotation of a thick pestle over the thighs of detenus with one or two persons standing on it after the detenus were made to lie down on the floor prostrates or supine; stretching the legs apart at the ankle level to the unbearable extent while the detenus were made to sit on the floor with some persons supporting their backs with their knees and pulling their hair backwards; tying of fecal matter around their mouths; application of electric currents on their bodies etc.

THE MOTIVE IN TORTURING THE DETENUS

The Commission concluded that, “The initial detention of several persons being illegal and none of them having been produced before a magistrate within twenty four hours of their arrest, the Government thought it better to pass orders of detention under the National Security Act… Tam of the view that this kind of decision was taken by the Government that by interrogation of the detenus it should be found out whether any of them could be connected with any criminal offense. This necessitated the torture of detenus at the Ladha Kothi jail “It is for this reason that the interrogation Center at Ladha Kothi was declared a jail by a notification dated 31.5.1984. The same day Super indent Police and Deputy Superintendent Police, in charge of the interrogation center were declared the Super indent and the Deputy Superintendent of the Jail respectively.