annual report print final.qxd - Asian Centre for Human Rights
annual report print final.qxd - Asian Centre for Human Rights
annual report print final.qxd - Asian Centre for Human Rights
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INDIA HUMAN RIGHTS REPORT 2005 Punjab<br />
alleged that the police <strong>for</strong>ced a<br />
compromise and immediately thereafter<br />
beat him up in drunken condition. He had<br />
to be admitted in the Civil Hospital,<br />
Jagraon. 41<br />
The police and the Punjab Vigilance<br />
Bureau personnel allegedly harassed the<br />
family members of Jaskaran Singh, whose<br />
petition in the Punjab and Haryana High<br />
Court led to the quashing of illegal<br />
selection of seven Deputy Superintendent<br />
of Police, including sons of the Chief<br />
Minister’s media advisor B I S Chahal and<br />
Ferozepur Senior Superintendent of Police<br />
Harinder Singh Chahal on 15 October<br />
2004. 42 Ever since Jaskaran’s filed the<br />
petition with the Punjab and Haryana High<br />
Court, police started harassing his elderly<br />
parents and younger brother Balkaran<br />
Singh in Bhagsar village of Muktsar. On 8<br />
October 2004, the Vigilance department<br />
registered a false case at Ferozepur,<br />
accusing Kheta Singh, the 68-year-old<br />
father of Jaskaran Singh and brother, of<br />
helping a woman get old-age pension of<br />
Rs 200 a month though her husband<br />
allegedly owned eight acres land.<br />
Vigilance department arrested both and<br />
detained them illegally <strong>for</strong> 10 days. 43 The<br />
only punishment given by the Punjab<br />
government against such harassment and<br />
illegal detention was transfer of Ferozepur<br />
Vigilance Superintendent of Police,<br />
Inderjit Singh Randhawa. This is despite<br />
that even Chief Minister Amarinder Singh<br />
himself regretted the arrest of Kheta<br />
Singh. 44<br />
A hotel owner, Mukesh Nayyar of<br />
204<br />
Ludhiana was allegedly picked up from<br />
his hotel by the Kotwali police at 12 noon<br />
on 4 December 2004, and detained<br />
illegally <strong>for</strong> more than 13 hours <strong>for</strong> his<br />
alleged reluctance to repay borrowed<br />
money. Following intervention by his<br />
family, he was released after midnight. He<br />
was allegedly humiliated and tortured by<br />
the police. After coming back from the<br />
police station he <strong>report</strong>edly developed<br />
chest pain and had to be hospitalized in the<br />
Intensive Cardiac Care Unit of a hospital 45<br />
iv. Prison conditions<br />
The prison conditions remained<br />
deplorable and the rights of the prisoners<br />
continued to be violated.<br />
Relatives of ailing inmates needed to<br />
bribe the medical staff of the jails to get<br />
their kin referred to civil hospital <strong>for</strong><br />
proper medical treatment. On January<br />
2004, the Vigilance Bureau had caught a<br />
policeman Dheeraj Kumar while accepting<br />
bribe of Rs 3000 from a relative of an<br />
undertrial on behalf of Dr David of the<br />
Jallandhar Central Jail. The Vigilance<br />
Bureau seized official records of the jail<br />
hospital and conducted raids to nab the<br />
absconding medical officer. Undertrials<br />
were allegedly referred to the local Civil<br />
Hospital <strong>for</strong> better treatment only if the<br />
officials were bribed. 46<br />
Deputy Superintendent of the<br />
Amritsar Central Jail Sardool Singh,<br />
police head constables- Sukhwinder<br />
Singh, Mahinder Singh, Gurdeep Singh<br />
and constables- Chanchal Singh, Harjinder<br />
Singh and Sham Singh were <strong>report</strong>edly