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

INDIA HUMAN RIGHTS REPORT 2005 Punjab
V. Violations of the rights of the
child
Three minor children - Sonia (13),
Suman (12) and Gagandeep (10),
grandchildren of Atam Prakash of Raikot
in Ludhiana district were allegedly
detained illegally and inhumanly tortured
including molestation by Assistant Sub
Inspector Baldev Singh and other police
officials at Chheharta police station in
Amritsar on 5 and 6 July 2004. The
children were reportedly picked up at 5
a.m. on 5 July 2004 along with other
members of the family on a complaint by
Geeta Sharma, wife of Varinder Kumar, the
maternal uncle of the children. They were
taken to Chheharta police station although
they were neither accused nor connected
with the case in any way. At the Chheharta
police station, the three minors were kept
in confinement in a cell separate from their
parents and grandparents. The children
alleged that they were not given food till
the evening of 5 July 2004 that too only
when their grandfather Atam Prakash paid
Rs 130. 69 Subsequent inquiry by Punjab
Police found the allegations to be true.
On 11 September 2004, police from
the B-Division police station in Amritsar
picked up 13-year-old daughter of
Harbhajan Kaur and kept her in illegal
custody. The victim alleged that she was
kept in nude for hours and the policemen
abused her in filthy language. Pursuant to
directions of the Punjab and Haryana High
Court, a warrant officer of the court
reportedly recovered and released the girl
from the police station. She was allegedly
detained to force her family to handover
her brother Baldev Singh, whom the police
allegedly implicated in a false case. 70
On 9 March 2004, two invigilators
allegedly stripped a student of Class XII,
Amit Gupta, who was taking his final
examination in a center set up at SSD
Senior Secondary School, Bhatinda, for
refusing to give his answer sheet to one of
the invigilators to facilitate copying by a
ward of a Very Very Important Person,
who was also appearing for the
examination in the same center. An
independent inquiry into the matter by the
Lawyers for Human Rights International,
an NGO, held two members of invigilating
staff guilty. Two members of the
invigilating staff caught hold of Amit,
searched his body and forcibly removed
his clothes in front of the other students
after implanting a paper slip. The
invigilators allegedly tried to implicate
Amit in an unfair means case. 71
Twelve girl students, belonging to
Scheduled Caste families, reportedly
decided to discontinue studies in protest
against “cruel and humiliating” treatment
by the Mehsuana village high school
headmaster in Faridkot district. The girl
students had scars on faces that were
allegedly caused by the teacher with his
nails. On complaint by the students and
their parents through the village Sarpanch,
the District Commissioner ordered an
inquiry into the incident on 16 May 2004. 72
On 4 September 2004, a teacher at the
Government Elementary School of Chak
Ruldu Singh Wala village in Bathinda
209