WSN Bureau CHANDIGARH: Yet another case has come to light in which a Sikh was kept in illegal police custody, tortured till he was a physical ‘wreak; released by the orders of High Court, abducted illegally till ‘he was found by a court official again, His brother in law was also found in illegal police detention.
Gurjaspal Singh council for Baldev Singh has informed the district and sessions judge Prithipal Singh Grewal who is conducting an inquiry into the circumstances leading to the disappearance of Baldev Singh, about this development in the case. Justice Harbans Singh Rai of the High Court has directed Grewal to conduct the inquiry.
Kuldeep Singh, a brother in law of Baldev Singh has also been found in police custody by a warrant officer appointed by the High Court.
Following the disappearance of Baldev Singh his father Jagir Singh had moved a habeas corpus petition in the court of Justice KS. Bhalla of the Punjab and Haryana High Court on August submitting that Baldev Singh had been kept in illegal police detention at the Public Works Department rest house Ram Bagh in Batala police district by Mohinder Singh the station house of at Chowk Mehta Police station. Dhillon appointed Gian Singh as warrant officer who found Baldev Singh at a rest house which Was under the control of the Central Reserve Police Force.
Gian Singh presented a notice of the High Court to the CRPF officer incharge there directing him to present Baldey Singh to the High Court on August 11. However he was not produced in the court.
According to Jagir Singh, the Chowk Mehta police had given to the CRPF the name of Baldev Singh as “Toda Ram, a terrorist belonging to Nanak Sar Mohalla Tarn Taran.” However Baldev Singh is a resident of Shahpur near Baba Bakala.
On another petition filed for the recovery of Kuldeep Singh, the brother in law of Baldev Singh, who had taken the later to a private hospital in Mohali, the court appointed warrant officer recovered Kuldeep Singh from the Doewal police post near Chowk Mehta.
When the two warrant officers went to Chowk Mehta police station they were told that a case had been registered against Kuldeep Singh on August 10 at 1 pm the day the warrant officer found him. However Kuldeep Singh was allegedly in police custody since June 6th.
Malkiat Singh, a brother of Baldev Singh, said Baldev Singh was arrested on April 18 by the Chowk Mehta police. He was found by the warrant officer on June 6 and brought to Chandigarh for treatment in a van as he was almost a physical wreck due to torture.
He could not be admitted to any hospital at Chandigarh due to legal technicalities and was taken to Mohali on the Chandigarh Punjab border. When the van reached Chowk.
Mehta after leaving him in Mohali, the police there impounded the van and arrested Kuldeep Singh. The police brought the van to Mohali and took Baldev Singh away in the van back to the police station where they detained him illegally for the second time.
Article extracted from this publication >> August 25, 1989
