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

INDIA HUMAN RIGHTS REPORT 2005 Punjab
theft case. The personnel of the Criminal
Investigation Agency, Jagraon to whom he
was handed over allegedly beat him up
brutally and gave electric shocks on his
private parts for two days to extract
information from him. He fell unconscious
and had to be treated at Mohan Dai Cancer
Hospital in Ludhiana on 8 July 2004.
According to the hospital doctors, Harjit
complained of police torture at the time of
his admission and required consultations
of a surgeon, an orthopedist and an MD. 36
In early August 2004, Jaswant Singh
of Deep Singh Wala village in Faridkot
district was admitted to surgery ward No 3
of Guru Gobind Singh Medical College
Hospital, Faridkot after alleged police
torture. There were visible marks of injury
on his thighs. Kotkapura SHO, Nachhatar
Singh allegedly subjected him to third
degree torture, including electric shocks
during ‘illegal’ custody till the police
station was raided by a High Court’s
warrant officer who rescued him. 37
The Punjab Governor and
Administrator of Union Territory of
Chandigarh, Justice O.P. Verma ordered
the Inspector General of Police, Punjab to
inquire into the beating of one Amit Suri
and his parents by the Chandigarh Police
on 10 August 2004. 38
In a complaint to the Punjab State
Human Rights Commission in August
2004, Nishan Singh, an accused in a
murder case, alleged that Station House
Officer (SHO) of Fatehgarh Panjtoor
police station, Ranjeet Singh Sotha used
third degree torture upon him during
“illegal” custody for eight days. Soon after
his arrest the SHO allegedly undressed
him and blackened his face with the aid of
other policemen. The SHO then tied him
to a tree in the premises of the police
station and thrashed him brutally. The
SHO allegedly made him sit on the bonnet
of a jeep, garlanded him with shoes, and
took him around the village and
humiliated him in front of villagers. A
bottle of beer was also inserted in the
private parts of the accused with the help
of other policemen. 39
On 30 July 2004, Sudershan Mittal, a
Municipal Councilor of Samana in Patiala
district, was reportedly picked up from his
shop by a police party led by SHO, Rajesh
Chhiber and took him to the Samana
police station where the Samana Deputy
Superintendent of Police was also present.
As his supporters started gathering in front
of the Samana police station, Mittal was
whisked away to the Badshahpur police
chowki in the sub-division, where he was
allegedly stripped naked and meted out
third degree methods. His signature was
forcibly taken on blank sheets of paper.
The victim alleged that the SHO and the
DSP had a grudge against him since he had
appeared as a witness in a complaint filed
before the PSHRC against them. 40
In mid-September 2004, Gurcharan
Singh of Gorsian Khanna Mohammad in
Ludhiana district was allegedly beaten up
by the police officials of the Bhundri
police station, where he went to lodge a
complaint against a tractor driver whose
vehicle collided with his jeep. The victim
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