AMRITSAR: The Amritsar police chief Sanjeev Gupta has ordered a high-level inquiry into the alleged illegal detention and torture of two jewelers who are brothers in the local Civil Lines police station last week.
The action follows instructions from the IG (crime) whom the victims met in Chandigarh three days back. The SP (headquarters) Param Pal Singh Sidhu will conduct the probe.
The brothers Sunil Kapur (36) and Vikram Kapur (22) of Basant Avenue were allegedly kept in the lock up tortured and paraded in the city without any case against them.
In written affidavits to the IG and filed in a local court they alleged that they had invited the wrath of the police for having refused to give 16 bags of cement to officials of the Civil Lines police station.
The medical examination of the two on Sept.6 the day they were released from the custody confirmed multiple injury marks on their bodies. Copies of the medico legal report were attached with the affidavits showing the telltale marks of torture the Kapur brothers narrated their experiences in the police custody to the press.
However the SSP when contacted rejected the bribe story as baseless. He insisted that the two brothers were picked up on the basis of specific complaints of eve-leasing.
Admitting that the two were beaten up and kept in illegal detention he asked. “What better treatment should such eve teasers expect from the police?
Confronted with the allegation of illegal detention the SHO Civil Lines R.K.Kaushat maintained that the case against the two was not registered following a written pardon sought by them. Certain prominent persons of the area had also asked the police not to register a case against them he added.
While denying that he or his subordinate staff had asked for bags of cement the SHO produced photo-copies of a dozen documents in support of the police contention that the two were eve teasers.
An affidavit filed by Kimili Lal and Rajan Kumar of the Basant Avenue area charged both the brothers by name with teasing their daughters. It further alleged that the Kapur brothers had assaulted the deponents on Sept.3.
The matter according to the affidavit was referred to the Civil Lines police station but a compromise was arrived at with the two tendering an “apology”. However later they threatened the parents that they would kidnap their daughters.
In separate but identical signed statements both the brothers before being released from the police lock-up confessed having been caught while teasing girls on the Mall Road on Sept.4 and sought pardon with an assurance of good conduct in future.
The Kapur brothers however described the police documents as “fabricated” and to cover the police excesses on them “The police forcibly made us sign blank papers before letting us off” they alleged. Stating their version of the incident they said the police had asked for a bribe from them for carrying out construction work in that show room late at night. The Civil Lines police officials were first given a silver chain and then five bags of cement on demand they alleged.
They further alleged that the police had asked them to give another 15 bags of cement but they refused to oblige.
Enraged at this the police they said picked them up from their residence on Sept.4 and tortured them for four days. “When our younger brother Bobby Kapur pleaded with the police to let us off he was also detained and given severe battering” they said. The police relented only after Bobby Kapur agreed to provide the 15 bags of cement. The same was from a cement dealer with the bill in the name of Civil Lines police station they said while producing a copy of the bill.
They said they had gone to the IG only after the local police officials refused to listen to their woes “Rather the police had threatened to liquidate us in a fake encounter if we dared to go to high ups or the press they added.
The SSP however refuted their charges saying he had given a hearing to them immediately after they were released. They had pleaded innocence but not complained about the torture he said.
A week ago a police party led by no other than an officer of the SP rank thrashed three rice shelter Owners at a public place for having violated traffic files.
In yet another show of matchlessness the local police had publicly beaten up seven girls charged with immoral activities.
Article extracted from this publication >> September 20, 1991
