annual report print final.qxd - Asian Centre for Human Rights

INDIA HUMAN RIGHTS REPORT 2005 Punjab
iii. Arbitrary arrest, detention and
torture
Illegal detention and torture to extract
confession and to settle personal enmity
were widely reported from Punjab.
On 5 February 2004, Senior
Superintendent of Police, Gurdaspur R P S
Brar reportedly suspended ASI Parminder
Singh and constable Hardeep Kumar
posted at Tugalwal police post under
Kahnuwan police station in Gurdaspur
district following complaints of illegal
detention and brutal torture of Surjeet
Singh and Sandeep Kumar. The two
policemen had allegedly picked up the two
youth when they were returning to their
village without any reason and subjected
them to merciless beating in the police
station. Marks of injuries were reported to
be visible on their bodies. 31
On 25 March 2004, Balwinder Singh
of Chamkaur Sahib and Ajit Singh of a
village near Khanna in Ropar district were
arrested and detained at Chamkaur Sahib
police station in connection with a case of
theft and robbery. Medical examinations
conducted on the direction of the court of
Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate
confirmed torture in police custody. Their
bodies bore injury marks. They were also
reportedly given electric shocks. The
doctor referred them to an ENT expert as
they complained of impaired hearing due
to the shocks. 32
On the night of 25 April 2004, Inderjit
Singh of Bhail Dhaiwala village in
Amritsar district was allegedly picked up
from his house by a police party of Sadar
202
police station led by SHO Naurang Singh.
They were enquiring about the
whereabouts of his brother Jatinderpal
Singh who had allegedly kidnapped a girl
and married her. Inderjit Singh alleged that
police detained him illegally for four days
during which the SHO and other
policemen subjected him to third degree
torture and humiliation, sometimes in the
presence of the brother and the father of
the girl. The policemen also allegedly
forced him to eat excreta. 33
The Punjab Police reportedly picked
up a Nepalese national in June 2004 in
connection with a theft case allegedly
committed by his son and two others in a
house near Lawrence Road in Amritsar. He
was kept in chain for three days in illegal
custody at the Lawrence Road police
chowki. Later the incident came into light
following the intervention of Laxmi Kanta
Chawla, Punjab State vice-president of the
BJP who was allegedly booked in a
fabricated case of possessing liquor and
was lodged at Amritsar Central Jail. 34 Head
Constable Kulwant Singh and constables
Balwinder Singh, Ishwar Lal and Sanjeev
Kumar were suspended after an inquiry
conducted by the Deputy Superintendent
of Police founded them guilty. The inquiry
was ordered at the instance of the Union
Ministry of Home Affairs after the
Government of Nepal complained about
the incident. 35
Harjit Singh Happy, a driver from
Bool village near Dehlon in Ludhiana
district was reportedly picked up by the
police on 6 July 2004 for questioning in a