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 />
V. Violations of the rights of the<br />
child<br />
Three minor children - Sonia (13),<br />
Suman (12) and Gagandeep (10),<br />
grandchildren of Atam Prakash of Raikot<br />
in Ludhiana district were allegedly<br />
detained illegally and inhumanly tortured<br />
including molestation by Assistant Sub<br />
Inspector Baldev Singh and other police<br />
officials at Chheharta police station in<br />
Amritsar on 5 and 6 July 2004. The<br />
children were <strong>report</strong>edly picked up at 5<br />
a.m. on 5 July 2004 along with other<br />
members of the family on a complaint by<br />
Geeta Sharma, wife of Varinder Kumar, the<br />
maternal uncle of the children. They were<br />
taken to Chheharta police station although<br />
they were neither accused nor connected<br />
with the case in any way. At the Chheharta<br />
police station, the three minors were kept<br />
in confinement in a cell separate from their<br />
parents and grandparents. The children<br />
alleged that they were not given food till<br />
the evening of 5 July 2004 that too only<br />
when their grandfather Atam Prakash paid<br />
Rs 130. 69 Subsequent inquiry by Punjab<br />
Police found the allegations to be true.<br />
On 11 September 2004, police from<br />
the B-Division police station in Amritsar<br />
picked up 13-year-old daughter of<br />
Harbhajan Kaur and kept her in illegal<br />
custody. The victim alleged that she was<br />
kept in nude <strong>for</strong> hours and the policemen<br />
abused her in filthy language. Pursuant to<br />
directions of the Punjab and Haryana High<br />
Court, a warrant officer of the court<br />
<strong>report</strong>edly recovered and released the girl<br />
from the police station. She was allegedly<br />
detained to <strong>for</strong>ce her family to handover<br />
her brother Baldev Singh, whom the police<br />
allegedly implicated in a false case. 70<br />
On 9 March 2004, two invigilators<br />
allegedly stripped a student of Class XII,<br />
Amit Gupta, who was taking his <strong>final</strong><br />
examination in a center set up at SSD<br />
Senior Secondary School, Bhatinda, <strong>for</strong><br />
refusing to give his answer sheet to one of<br />
the invigilators to facilitate copying by a<br />
ward of a Very Very Important Person,<br />
who was also appearing <strong>for</strong> the<br />
examination in the same center. An<br />
independent inquiry into the matter by the<br />
Lawyers <strong>for</strong> <strong>Human</strong> <strong>Rights</strong> International,<br />
an NGO, held two members of invigilating<br />
staff guilty. Two members of the<br />
invigilating staff caught hold of Amit,<br />
searched his body and <strong>for</strong>cibly removed<br />
his clothes in front of the other students<br />
after implanting a paper slip. The<br />
invigilators allegedly tried to implicate<br />
Amit in an unfair means case. 71<br />
Twelve girl students, belonging to<br />
Scheduled Caste families, <strong>report</strong>edly<br />
decided to discontinue studies in protest<br />
against “cruel and humiliating” treatment<br />
by the Mehsuana village high school<br />
headmaster in Faridkot district. The girl<br />
students had scars on faces that were<br />
allegedly caused by the teacher with his<br />
nails. On complaint by the students and<br />
their parents through the village Sarpanch,<br />
the District Commissioner ordered an<br />
inquiry into the incident on 16 May 2004. 72<br />
On 4 September 2004, a teacher at the<br />
Government Elementary School of Chak<br />
Ruldu Singh Wala village in Bathinda<br />
209