Amnesty International believes that the Punjab Police have been allowed to commit human rights violations with impunity in the State. While the organization recognizes that the Indian Government has had to face ruthless and violent opposition in Punjab, it is totally unacceptable for Government agents to resort to human ‘rights violations themselves in their fight against these groups, The UN Declaration on the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance makes Clear that “no circumstances whatsoever, whether a threat of war, a state of war, internal Political instability or any other public emergency may be invoked to justify enforced disappearances,” (Conclusion to Amnesty Report, “Determining the fate of the disappeared in Punjab,’ October 1995).
The fate of Amnesty reports in India is overfamiliar. Earlier hostile tearing apart by Subhash Kirpekar in The Times of India or contemptuous dismissal in The Economic Times The second has happened but not the first up to the moment of writing (October 25) with regard to this report. But I would find it difficult to dismiss this report because it is effectively factual, It gives dates, it names the victims and perpetrators and most important, it quotes Supreme Court and High Court judgments in specific cases judgments which have been ignored by the police. The only result has been a complaint by Mr. K.P.S. Gill to the Punjab Government that such judgments are demoralizing.
I will analyze this report presently. But in its totality T find it a damming indictment whose importance goes beyond human rights. It has become apolitical document without remotely intending to be. It shows how the Pax Beant Gilliana was “purchased” during 199395, Tacit up said of the Roman conquests: “They make a desert and call it peace.” The Beant Gill duo committed mass incarceration and disappearance and called it “normalcy.
‘The question arises why was this nightmare charted by current reportage and Supreme Court and High Court judgments not apparent to the rest of the nation? Why did Khushwant Singh and other eminent columnists make Mr. Gill into an, all-time hero and Beant Singh into a saviour of the nation? True, disquieting hints that all was not well in Mr. Gill’s raj were all the time appearing in the Press. But actually Mr. Gill’s night attacks against the militants overshadowed everything, else, Mr. Gill was proposed to be sent to North East, to J&K and every place which troubled the Indian middle class law and ‘order ethos. One development of the 1990s is that the middle class has become brutalized; Witness the joy with which Amnesty reports are pilloried for the least discrepancy.
Let us look into some of the specifies of the current report. The first is the phenomenon of “unclaimed bodies” cremated by the police. A particularly horrible instance is that of Sarabjit Singh. On October 30, 1993, the police from Valhotra brought two unclaimed bodies to the hospital for ‘autopsy. One of them was still found to be a live Sarabjit Singh. The doctor called his family but meanwhile the police took Sarabjit away. A few hours later his body ‘was brought back and cremated without his family being allowed to see it, When I read that I said, Welcome to Super Nazi State.
A former Black Cat Commando filed a petition in the Punjab HC alleging the police had killed people in fake encounters and cremated their bodies without due procedure,
The most important sector of the report concerns SC’s and HC’s critiques of the Punjab Police. It will be difficult for our media to reject this portion of the report. Of course, one has read about critical Judgments of the courts, but this is the first time they have been brought together in this damning fashion. In May 1995 the SC commented about a habeas corpus petition filed in 1991 about the disappearance of seven members of a family. “It is a serious matter, people are being killed, and their whereabouts and their dead bodies are not known. No doubt we will ensure that the law is maintained and its majesty upheld. But what about the people who are being eliminated and who will be accountable for that?
In another case the SC recommended prosecution of senior police officers on charges of murder on the basis of a CBI report that an entire family had been killed in custody. They rejected Mr, Gill’s plea that he had not been informed of the murders. They chided the solicitor general who defended the officers on the ground that no judge in Punjab had the to refuse bail to the accused: “You are asking for commendation to eliminate persons, it’s a most blatant thing I have heard from you.”
The cases in which action was taken by the HC reveals an equally alarming picture three instances will serve as illustrations.
In May 1995, three persons all in their 70sRanjit Kaur, Niranjan Singh and Mohinder Singh, found in police custody, were ordered to be released by the HC. They had been detained since 1992 to procure surrender of suspects. In July 1994 an enquiry ordered by the HC found the police guilty of murdering Maninder Singh Dalli in a fake encounter, The HC ‘ordered proceedings for murder under IPC against the police and ordered compensation to be paid to parents of Dalli.
In September 1995, the HC passed orders in a particularly awful case. One Vinod Kumar, his brotherinlaw, and driver, had “disappeared” in March 1994, when accompanied by a DSP. Vinod Kumarhad gone to collect the ashes of his father, The CBI suggested four officers were involved, The HC ordered pursuance of criminal proceedings and payment of substantial compensation.
The response of the police to this barrage of judicial censors is fascinating and throws light on future police tactics all over India to meet “human rights” criticism, it is a mix of administrative wicker ‘and the familiar to middle class insecurity vis-a-vis militancy. The HC premises are riddled with police spies. The moment an order is issued to release a detainee, the police agent sends an advance police official to shift the detainee elsewhere. Mr. S.B, Chavan and the Human Rights Commission have repeatedly asked the Punjab Government to check allegations of “disappearances.” The only police response has been to ask the Government that the flow of judicial criticism is checked as it is demoralizing the police. There is a proposal to enact an “extraordinary law” to bar judicial “interference” with anti-militant tactics of the police for a limited period of time.
The Amnesty has made recommend for correcting all this, of course, this is just ignorable counsel for the Brar Government and K.P.S. Gill. But the report is serious document for the Government to ponder overs.
Basically the report is a political document which contains a dire warning though Amnesty did not intend it to be so. The Government can ignore the implications of this report only at great cost to the people of Punjab and to human rights situation in the rest of India.
Article extracted from this publication >> November 10, 1995
