Disappearances

A case like that of Amarjit Singh in which a person is killed by the security forces in the style of hit squads in front of dozens of witnesses is rare in comparison to the pattern in which persons are first whisked away by unidentified men, appearing out of the blue in vehicles without number plates, to be taken to undisclosed places for interrogation and killed either under torture or in so-called encounters. Sometimes persons taken into illegal custody in such clandestine operations are, after a period of time, brought to trial on the basis of confessions exacted from them in the course of their interrogation. Special legislations like the National Security Act or the Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act are invoked against them, enabling the authorities to keep them detained for long periods without trial.

In some instances persons who are taken into illegal custody are released. However, their arrest and interrogation are never formally admitted. But such instances are rare and occur only when either the High Court of Punjab and Haryana or the Supreme Court of India issue directions for their production. The authorities ignore such directions when the evidence of a detainee having been taken into custody placed before the court is only secondary. Detention is also denied when a detainee ordered to be produced before a court has already been done to death. The following examples highlight these aspects of illegal detentions in Punjab.

Case No. I

On 17 January 1988, at about 10 a.m. two white cars without number plates drove into the taxi stand in Sector 22, near Aroma Hotel of Chandigarh. Some men in civil clothes but armed with automatic weapons got down from the cars. They were looking for Balwinder Singh, who drove a taxi owned by Sohan Singh. They found Balwinder Singh and forced him to get into one of the cars and drove away with him to some unknown destination.

It was a Sunday and Balvinder Singh's father, Gurdev Singh, who was also a driver at the General Hospital in Sector 16 of Chandigarh, was at home. He lived in village Bhadedi, Sector 41, in the outskirts of Chandigarh. At about 4 p.m., Sohan Singh, the owner of the taxi Balwinder used to drive, came to meet him and told him about the abduction of his son in the morning from the taxi stand. Gurdev Singh left the house immediately and went with Sohan Singh to the taxi stand to make further inquiries. But he could not make much headway. The next morning Gurdev Singh lodged a complaint of abduction of his son at the police station in Sector 34. He also met officials at the police stations of Sector 26, Sector 11 and Sector 39. He was told informally that Balwinder Singh had been picked up by Patiala police for interrogation.

On 27 January 1988 he went to Patiala to meet Inspector Surjit Singh Grewal, together with a personal acquaintance of his. Grewal admitted that Balwinder Singh was in the custody of Patiala police and was under interrogation. He promised that he would try to get Balwinder Singh produced before a magistrate within a couple of days. Balwinder Singh was not produced before a magistrate nor was his arrest covered under a preventive detention law. Gurdev Singh learnt nothing further about his son until the middle of February 1988. On 16 February a person who had been under the custody of Patiala Police came to see Gurdev Singh. He had been released some days ago from illegal custody in Mai Ki Sarai interrogation centre in Patiala, where he had met and spoken to Balwinder Singh who had been tortured severely. Gurdev Singh kept up his efforts to bring pressure on the police officers in Patiala to either release his son or to arraign him formally before a court of law. Together with the elected members of his village Panchayat - Ajayab Singh, Kartar Singh and Swaran Singh - he met the Director General of Police of Punjab, Mr. Rebeiro, in the first week of April 1988. Mr. Rebeiro directed him to see the Senior Superintendent of Police at Patiala, Sital Das. When they met Sital Das at his house in Patiala, soon after their meeting with Rebeiro, he denied that Balwinder Singh was in his custody. He expressed inability to help them. Till my last inquiry in June 1989, Balwinder Singh remained untraced. His father, now a psychological wreck, is convinced that he is dead.

Case No. II

Twenty two year old Manjit Singh was an automobile mechanic who ran a small garage on the ground floor of his house at 273, Phase 3, Mohali, in district Ropar. His father, Sohan Singh, lived in a Gurudwara of Chandigarh where he was a priest.

Jatinder Pal Singh, who had recently acquired a diploma in electronics from the Government Polytechnic in Bathinda, was Manjit's friend. Jatinder Pal was still without a job and lived with his mother, Mrs. Mohinder Kaur, at 127, Phase V, Mohali. His father Amrik Singh owned an agricultural farm in district Moradabad in Uttar Pradesh and lived mostly there.

On 15 January 1988 Jatinder Pal Singh called on Manjit Singh and stayed at his house overnight. They were woken up in the early morning of 16 January 1988 by loud knocks on the door of the house. When they opened the door, a dozen men in civil clothes forced their way into the house and after conducting a search of the premises took them into their custody. These men had come in cars which had no number plates. They neither identified themselves nor did they have warrants of arrest. The hands of Manjit Singh and Jatinder Pal Singh were tied with their own turbans and they were physically lifted into the waiting cars. The abduction was witnessed by several neighbours who did not interfere.

After Manjit Singh and Jatinder Pal Singh had been driven away in these unmarked cars to some unknown destination, some of the neighbours went to the Gurudwara in Sector 59 where Manjit 's father was a priest and told him about the happening in the morning. Sohan Singh sent a message to Mrs. Mohinder Kaur, Jatinder Pal Singh's mother whom he personally knew. Later in the evening both of them together with some sympathizers went to Mohali police station and met inspector Jagjit Singh, who was on duty. Jagjit Singh denied knowledge of the incident. He refused to take down a formal complaint of abduction of their children. Sohan Singh then went to the post office in Mohali and sent telegrams to the Governor, the Director General of Police, the Senior Superintendent of Police, Ropar, and Deputy Superintendent of Police of Mohali, informing them of his son's abduction and requesting them to ensure his safety under the law. These telegram with the serial numbers 203, 204, 205 and 206 were issued from the post office at SAS Nagar, Mohali at 7 p.m. on 16 January 1988.

On 17 January 1988 policemen in plainclothes raided the house of one Balvinder Singh at House No.1321 of Phase five, Mohali for a reason that can only be guessed to be in connection with the arrest of the two boys. Balwinder Singh was not then home. He had gone to his in-laws who lived in the neighbourhood. Policemen threatened to take away other members of the family if they would not take them to the place where Balwinder Singh was. Some of them led the policemen to the house of Balwinder's in-laws. He was taken into custody and whisked away.

The same team of policemen raided the house of one Kamaljit Singh Tohra, a handicapped boy with crippled legs, who lived in the house No. 13 Phase 3 Mohali, the same day and took him away too. They also went to arrest one Sohan Singh from his house at 1522, Phase 5, Mohali. Sohan Singh was not home. His brother Ashoki was picked up by the police in his place. The police told the family members that Ashoki would be released only when Sohan Singh surrendered himself to the Central Investigating Agency (CIA) of Patiala police. This reference to the CIA of the Patiala police gave away the identity of the abductors.

On 18 January 1988 Mohinder Kaur, Jatinder Pal's mother, and Manjit Singh's father went to Patiala to meet the officials of the CIA staff and to inquire from them about their sons. They met Inspector Surjit Singh Grewal, who assured them that their sons would be produced before a court within a day or two. Mr. Sohan Singh and Mohinder Kaur continued to visit the Inspector until their hopes were belied. On 12 February 1988 Mrs. Mohinder Kaur dispatched letters addressed to the Prime Minister of India, the Governor of Punjab, and the Director General of Police, Punjab begging them to intervene in the case to either get the abducted boys released or to have them charged formally under the law, if there was evidence against them.

A letter No.176307, dated 18 February 1988 from the Prime Minister's office, acknowledged her complaint and informed her that it was being forwarded to the Chief Secretary, Government of Punjab for appropriate action. The office of the Governor of Punjab also acknowledged her communication and informed her that the complaint was being looked into by the concerned Inspector General of Police.

In the meanwhile Kamaljit Singh, the boy with crippled legs, and Ashoki who had been whisked away by plainclothesmen on 17 January 1988, came back to their houses on 31 January 1988. They told them that their sons were in the custody of Patiala police at Mayi Ki Sarai Interrogation Centre and were being brutally tortured. Their condition was reported to be very grave. In the last week of February 1988, Mrs. Mohinder Kaur and Sohan Singh were able to get an audience with the Chief Secretary to the Government of Punjab. He promised to inquire into the episode and advised them to meet J.F. Rebeiro, the Director General of Punjab Police. Rebeiro declined to meet them. His personal assistant Mr. Kapil advised them to see Umrao Singh Kang, Superintendent of Police in the Intelligence department. They met him on 25 April 1988. Kang informed them that Manjit Singh and Jatinder Pal Singh were not in the custody of Patiala Police.

Ajit, a vernacular daily, published an article in its issue of 10 April 1988 about the disappearance of Manjit Singh and Jatinder Pal Singh. The article suggested that the two may have been killed by the police in the month of February. The suggestion remained officially uncontroverted.

Case No. III

Gurdip Singh, a 50 year-old automobile mechanic, lived in No.34/6, Mohalla Raj Nagar, Basti Baba Khel in the city of Jalandhar. Gurdip and his family comprising his mother Bhag Kaur, aged 70; his wife Mohinder Kaur, aged 45; his son Joginder Singh aged 26; and his daughter-in- law Paramjit Kaur, aged 24, are all Amritdhari (religiously orthodox) Sikhs. Gurdip and his son Joginder Singh run the workshop specialising in electrical repairs for heavy vehicles like trucks and tractors. When on 14 July 1989 at about 6 p.m., Gurdip Singh was returning home from his workshop on Dana Mandi Road, he was abducted by policemen in plain clothes driving an unnumbered Maruti van, from the road outside the house of Jiwan Singh Umranangal, an Akali politician, close to the (moderate Akali) former Chief Minister of the Punjab, S.S. Barnala.

Gurdip Singh and his family often used to visit the Golden Temple in Amritsar, being the most sacred shrine and the seat of Sikh religious authority. The Punjab police had begun harassing Gurdip Singh after Operation Blue Star (the invasion of the Golden Temple by the Indian army) in June 1984. Police teams from Amritsar, Ludhiana and Jalandhar had started picking him up for interrogation, and holding him in illegal custody in unknown places for periods lasting from one week to three months. His son, Joginder Singh, was also once picked up by CRPF officers towards the close of 1985 and taken to a rest house in Garshankar on Nawan Shahar Road, sixty kilometres from Jalandhar city. There he was tortured and questioned about his links with alleged "terrorists", and in particular about Sarabjit Singh, his own brother-in- law, who was suspected of belonging to a militant organisation. Joginder Singh was released after 15 days of illegal custody and interrogation.

In July 1987 Gurdip Singh was formally arrested by the officials of police station Sadar in Jalandhar on the basis of a First Information Report (FIR) No.297 dated 21 July 87 under sections 212 and 216 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and section 3/4 of the Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act - so-called 'Black Laws' - pertaining to offences of harbouring and assisting criminals with the intention of saving them from punishment. In order to prevent his release on bail the police also invoked the National Security Act (NSA) which empowers them to detain a person without trial for two years. Sarabjit Singh, Paramjit Kaur's brother, was later arrested from his village Johal, Tehsil Tanda, district Hoshiarpur, and after nearly four months of illegal detention, killed on 2 September 1987 in a 'faked encounter' by Punjab police on the outskirts of Taran Taran. In January 1988 Gurdip Singh was granted bail and released from jail in the aforementioned case by the sessions court of Jalandhar and his detention under the NSA was quashed by the Board of Review. For the following six months he devoted himself solely to his work and his family.

On the said day, 14 July 1988, Gurdip Singh was returning home on his bicycle after closing his workshop at 6 p.m. His son Joginder Singh followed on his scooter and on the way, stopped to collect a payment from a customer. When he reached the road leading to Basti Baba Khel near J.S. Umranangal's house, he saw roughly 100 metres ahead some men in plain clothes carrying firearms alight from a numberless Maruti van and pounce on a man pedalling his bicycle. He saw them forcing the man into the van and then speeding away. In the fading evening light, Joginder Singh did not see the victim very clearly, otherwise he would have seen that it was his own father. He stopped to talk to the officers on duty at a CRPF check-post nearby who had also witnessed the kidnapping and they said that if they had a vehicle at their disposal, they would have chased the van to ascertain who had abducted him and on what charge.

When his father was not home by 9.30 p.m., Joginder Singh returned to the CRPF check post where the officers had in the meantime taken into their possession the bicycle that the victim had abandoned on the road. Joginder Singh recognised the cycle and realised what had transpired. The following morning, he, together with his mother, Mohinder Kaur, went to Sadar police station to inquire about his father's disappearance. The officers on duty denied knowledge of the case and refused to register a case of abduction. Joginder Singh then sent telegrams to the following people: the Governor of Punjab; Mr. Ribiero, his adviser; Deputy Inspector General of Police, Jalandhar range; and SSP of Jalandhar, informing them of the abduction of Gurdip Singh and requesting them to intervene in locating his father.

While Joginder Singh was standing outside Anand Clinic on Kapurthala Road, half a kilometre from his house, chatting with his friend Jasbir Singh Anand, a registered medical practitioner, he happened to spot his father sitting in the rear of a CRPF jeep, flanked by several armed men. The jeep sped past before he could call out to his father. This occurred at around nine in the morning sometime in January 1989, though he does not recall the exact date. Joginder Singh sighted his father again two weeks later, this time, inside a numberless mini bus, sitting with a Sikh youth.

Mohinder Kaur, Gurdip Singh's wife, met Ribiero in his office in Chandigarh on 15 February 1989 and pleaded with him to ascertain the whereabouts of her husband. Earlier she had sent a second petition addressed to the Governor of Punjab. An acknowledgement from his office (No. Gov-Gen-Ga-V 88/2476-Jal) dated 24 November 1988 informed her that the complaint had been forwarded to the deputy inspector general of police (grievances), Punjab, for follow-up. Gurdip Singh was sighted a third time in October 1989 by his niece Kulwinder Kaur, who lives in house No.80 of Bhagat Singh Colony in Jalandhar. She was returning from Gurudwara Baba Budha in Dakoye Village near the Jalandhar cantonment in a three-wheeler taxi around 3 p.m., the exact date she does not remember. When the taxi stopped by a road junction to let another passenger off, she spotted her uncle sitting in a mini bus that had just overtaken her taxi. There was a Sikh boy with him and several policemen flanked them.

In November 1988 Mohinder Kaur received a notice from the court of S.S. Tiwana, additional judge, designated court, Jalandhar, asking Gurdip Singh to appear before him on 21 September 1989 in connection with a case, FIR No.297 dated 21 July 1987, which was still pending against him. His wife sent to the Sadar police station to inquire about her husband's whereabouts and for his production before the court. A clerk informed her that Gurdip Singh was alive and she should not worry about the court summons as the senior police officials in charge of the case would take care of the matter.

Case No. IV

Gurmej Singh, son of Harpal Singh, a priest at the Golden Temple, also worked as a clerk at the Shiromani Gurudwara Prabandhak Committee's (SGPC) office in Amritsar. He lived with his parents in house No.57, Krishna Nagar, Taran Taran Road, Amritsar.

On 21 May 1989, Gurmej Singh was taken into custody by inspector Gurdev Singh of B. Division police station when he was standing outside the house of Santokh Singh Kala in Shaheed Udham Singh Nagar. Both Gurmej and Santokh Singh Kala were former members of the All-India Sikh Students Federation (AISSF) during the days of the fundamentalist leader Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale before Operation Bluestar. Both of them, who were, at the time, good friends, had been arrested under section 4/5 of the Explosives Act and 324/148/149 of the Indian Penal Code in a case registered by the police station C. Division, Amritsar, under the FIR No.207/83 dated 4 April 1983. Gurmej Singh was released on bail by the court of Sessions Judge Amritsar on 13 December 1983.

Sometime after Operation Bluestar it was rumoured that Santokh Singh Kala had become a police agent and was leading an armed vigilante group organised by the SSP of Amritsar. Gurmej Singh, for his part, had joined the service of the SGPC after his release from jail. As both were old acquaintances, they continued to meet. On February 1989, Gurmej Singh's father Harpal Singh, decided to go to America. Before his departure, he organised an Akhand Path - a continuous reading of the Sikh scripture, Guru Granth Sahib - attended by Kala.

As recounted by Gurmej Singh's younger brother Kulwant Singh, a quarrel developed between Kala and Gurmej when one night in late March 1989, the former came to their house in a drunken state and threatened to get his brother Gurmej shot, if he continued to interrupt his work for the police. On 20 May 1989 some unidentified assailants fired at S.S. Kala while he was talking to some people standing outside his house, fatally injuring him. On that day, Gurmej Singh had returned home as usual from work in the SGPC office at around 5 p.m. He had already learned that S.S. Kala had been shot. Later the same evening, Gurmej went to the hospital to visit Kala, but the latter had already expired. The following day he went to attend his funeral procession, accompanied by his mother Tejinder Kaur, around 2. 30 p.m. His mother sat in a room together with other women bewailing the death. When the body was lifted onto the pier at the start of the funeral procession, she entered the courtyard along with the other women, and noticed Inspector Gurdev Singh (whose name she learned only later) of B Division police station talking to her son. They were conversing in a visibly friendly spirit. She then saw Gurdev Singh lead him to his jeep, his hand on her son's shoulder. Both of them got into the vehicle and left as the funeral procession began.

Their departure was also witnessed by a priest working in the Golden Temple, Baldev Singh, son of Satwant Singh of Tola Maddu, Quarter No.7, Amritsar, who at the time, was walking down the road parallel to Kala's house on his way to meet Sucha Singh, a fellow priest residing near Kala's house. While observing the crowd near Kala's house he also saw inspector Gurdev Singh talking to Gurmej Singh, lead him to the jeep and drive away with him. Another witness was Bhupinder Singh, son of Udham Singh, resident of 25/7665 Kot Man Singh, G.T. Road, Amritsar, who owns a shop of building materials. He had also gone to attend the funeral ceremony and was acquainted with both Kala and Gurmej Singh.

When Gurmej Singh failed to return home by evening, Tejinder Kaur became worried and went to Giani Pritam Singh, the head priest of the Akal Takht, requesting him to investigate the whereabouts of her son. Pritam Singh tried unsuccessfully to contact the relevant officials by phone. The following morning she went to the police station B Division to inquire about Inspector Gurdev Singh. As he was not there, the constables on duty expressed their inability to help her. She next met SSP Sanjiv Gupta and the Deputy Commissioner of Amritsar, on the morning of 23 May. They promised to make inquiries and inform her when they had discovered something about her son. The Manager of the Golden Temple, on the same day, sent telegrams to the Deputy Commissioner, Amritsar; SSP, Amritsar; and the Governor of Punjab, informing them of Gurmej Singh's abduction by Inspector Gurdev Singh and requesting them to intervene to save his life. On 25 May, when Tejinder Kaur, together with several sympathisers, returned to meet the SSP Amritsar, they were told that Gurdev Singh denied having taken Gurmej Singh into his custody. On 5 June 1989 his mother sent signed petition to the Deputy Inspector General of Police, Border Range, Amritsar, asking for her son's whereabouts. The same day she requested her younger son, Kulwant Singh, to call his father in America and acquaint him with the developments. Harpal Singh, upon hearing about his son's abduction, sent telegrams from Union City, California, to the Governor of Punjab, Director General of Police, Punjab, and to the Home Minister of India with the following text:

"I, Harpal Singh Ardasiya of the Golden Temple Amritsar am shocked to learn of my son Gurmej Singh Geja, an employee of the SGPC, being picked up by a police officer ten days back at Amritsar. Now I am worried about his life and do not know where he is. I request that you please locate him."

A letter from the office of the Governor of Punjab (No.Gov-Scett-Fu 89/Asr 3224) dated 1 June 1989 and addressed to Mrs. Tejinder Kaur, acknowledged the telegraphic complaint and informed her that it was being forwarded to the Director General of Police for inquiry. When Harpal Singh returned to Amritsar on 14 June 1989, he met the same officials as his wife had, but to no avail. He proceeded on to Delhi and met Home Minister Buta Singh who promised to inquire and inform him the outcome. When Harpal Singh returned to Delhi to meet him again, he was unavailable.

In November 1989, the SSP Sanjiv Gupta instructed the Deputy Superintendent of Police, Vijay Pal Sharma, to show Harpal Singh the report of an armed encounter that had supposedly taken place between the security forces and Sikh militants on the outskirts of Amritsar leading to the death of two Sikh militants in the night of May 25/26. Harpal Singh saw the report but did not recognise either of the two photos attached, to be that of his son.

On 28 December 1989, two members of the Committee which has compiled this report, Nitya Ramakrishnan and, R.N. Kumar, met the SSP Amritsar and requested him to ascertain Gurmej Singh's whereabouts forthwith. The SSP told them that his difficulty in formally instituting an inquiry was that no one who may have seen Gurdev Singh abduct Gurmej Singh was willing to state this to him. The Committee members told him that there were witnesses to the fact of Gurdev Singh driving him away, and that Mrs. Tejinder Kaur, Gurmej's mother, had met them on 25 May 1989 and stated unequivocally that she had seen Inspector Gurdev Singh take him along in his official jeep and that she had said so to them in front of nearly ten witnesses. The Committee members then asked him to record her statement. They also met the Governor of Punjab on 30 December 1989 and apprised him of the case. The same day, the SSP Amritsar recorded Tejinder Kaur's statement reiterating her son's abduction by inspector Gurdev Singh who has since been promoted to the rank of Deputy Superintendent of Police.

Case No. V

Shamsher Singh is a retired soldier aged 70 who lives with his wife Inderjit Kaur in village Rampurmehrab, Boodhgarhbalan, Post Office Morinda, District Ropar. The youngest of their three sons, Rajinder Pal Singh has been killed; Khushwinder Singh is in illegal custody of the CIA staff, Patiala, and Gurmej Singh, the eldest, has left the house following his wife's death after loosing her child while under police torture.

Sometime after Operation Bluestar - he and his wife are not sure of the exact dates - police came to their home searching for Rajinder Pal, their youngest son, and took him away in custody. The aged couple could not identify the policemen. Rajinder Pal returned after a few days, but as policemen kept coming and picking him up for interrogation, after some time, Rajinder Pal fled from home. Still the police did not cease their harassment of other family members in order to put pressure on Rajinder Pal to surrender.

Once the police came to the house when Gurmej Singh and his pregnant wife Jasbir Kaur were alone. The police party was led by R.P. Singh Sodhi, the Station House Officer of Morinda police station, The policemen beat both Gurmej Singh and his wife and even threatened to kill them if they did not reveal the whereabouts of Rajinder Pal. Some of them fired in the air to intimidate the couple and after some time, departed. Jasbir Kaur had severe pain in her abdomen and was taken to hospital in Chamkaur Sahib. The doctors said she needed an operation since the child in her womb had died. She was then transferred to the Post Graduate Institute of Medicine in Chandigarh where she also expired. Her husband was taken into custody the same night, moments after returning from her cremation.

Upon his release after a few days, he too, fled the house, never to return. On 21 May 1985 the Punjabi newspaper Ajit published a news item reporting Rajinder Pal's arrest. Some days later a sub-divisional Magistrate came to the house to inform Shamsher Singh that his son had been killed in an 'intergang fight'. He asked him to sign some papers which he did without reading them. The second son, Khushwinder Singh, who still remained with his parents, had already been implicated in some cases during the days when police used to harass the family to learn of Rajinder Pal's whereabouts.

On 26 January 1989, on Indian Republic Day, the police took him again into custody and for an entire month nothing was heard of him. After that he was produced before a magistrate and sent to Ludhiana Jail, but released on bail in April 1989. Khushwinder Singh had to attend the trial before a court in Ludhiana on 21 July 1989. On the previous evening, he went to the house of a relative, Nettar Singh in Madanpur, near Mohali, accompanied by Shamsher Singh, his father and stayed overnight. On the 21st morning, while they were waiting at the terminal for a bus to Chandigarh where Khushwinder had planned to change buses for Ludhiana, two vehicles without number plates, one Maruti van and other a jeep, drove up to them. Some armed men in plain clothes led by a person who Shamsher Singh later recognised as Inspector Surjit Singh Grewal of CIA staff, Patiala, caught hold of Khushwinder Singh, forced him into the jeep and drove off with him.

Towards the end of April 1989, Shamsher Singh and his wife Inderjit Kaur learned that their son was in the custody of the CIA staff, Patiala. Sher Singh, who had also been arrested on the same day, came to their house and told them that both of them would be in the CIA interrogation centre at Patiala until 23 August. Upon learning this from Sher Singh, Shamsher Singh went to the CIA staff office together with Madho Singh, former member of the Punjab Assembly from Ropar. There he met Surjit Singh Grewal and recognised him as the person who had abducted his son. But the Inspector denied that he had ever taken Khushwinder Singh into custody.

On 26 October 1989 Khushwinder Singh was seen in police custody in Chandigarh by Paramjit Kaur, wife of Nettar Singh, the relative in whose house he had spent the night before his abduction. Paramjit had gone to the hospital in sector 16 around 9 a.m. and was returning home after a medical check-up. A short distance ahead, she saw a person in handcuffs who was being led away by seven or eight policemen from the hospital into a waiting van. As from behind he resembled Khushwinder, she called out his name and immediately, he turned to look at her. When she recognised him, the policemen escorting him became apprehensive and asked him to move on; but he still kept turning in her direction.

Case No. VI

Kulwinder Singh, alias Kid, aged 20, is the only child of Tarlochan Singh Sidhu, principal of Khalsa Senior Secondary School in Kharar, District Ropar. Kulwinder Singh was suspected by the police, of having associated with the AISSF. He was arrested in September 1986 and lodged in the maximum security prison of Nabha for two years. He was released from jail on 27 October 1988.

From the day of his release, members of the Punjab police force from different districts started raiding Tarlochan Singh's house, and taking Kulwinder and other family members into illegal custody for interrogation usually lasting several days, without stating any specific charges. On 4 January 1989 Tarlochan Singh met the SSP of Ropar to ask him why the police were still harassing Kulwinder Singh and his family. He assured him that Kulwinder was not wanted in any criminal case and there would be no further harassment.

Kulwinder Singh was married on 12 February 1989, and started living separately from the family, with his wife in house No.1752, Phase 5, Mohali, District Ropar. On 22 July 1989 around 11 a.m. a large number of policemen, many in plain clothes, laid siege to Kulwinder's house. A sympathetic neighbour, familiar with his circumstances, fearing that the police might whisk him away once again, went to his father at his school and informed him about what had happened. Tarlochan Singh immediately contacted several friends (named in the report), who all accompanied him to his son's house - it was around 3 p.m. - they saw Kulwinder Singh along with another young man walking down the lane from the opposite direction. When they neared his house, suddenly, nine to ten policemen pounced on them and captured Kulwinder Singh. When his companion tried to escape he was fired at. The group of friends saw him fall in front of house No.1765. The policemen dragged his injured body into an unnumbered jeep which was parked outside house No.1719. Kulwinder Singh was immediately blindfolded, his hands and feet tied and dragged into the same jeep.

The police action was led by Amarjit Singh, assistant sub-inspector, CIA staff, Patiala. The person's name who had been shot was subsequently ascertained as Palwinder Singh, alias Pola, resident of Thade, Sadar police station, Phagwara. Tarlochan Singh immediately sent telegrams to the Governor of Punjab, the Director General of Punjab Police and the SSP of Ropar informing them of the incident and requesting them to prevent the boy's murder in a 'faked encounter'. On the morning of 24 July 1989 Tarlochan Singh learned that the police had staged an 'encounter' near the police station, not far from Kharar, on the previous night in the course of which two "terrorists" were claimed to have been killed. Suspecting that the victims might have been Kulwinder and his companion, Tarlochan Singh addressed a telegraphic petition to the Chief Justice of Punjab and Haryana High Court requesting him to order that the bodies should not be cremated until they had been identified. The High Court did not admit the petition. The same evening Justice A.S. Bains, retired judge of the same court and Chair man of the Punjab Human Rights Organisation, along with Inderjit Singh Jaijee, co-convener of the Movement Against State Repression, met the Deputy Commissioner of Ropar and requested him to let Tarlochan Singh take a look at the bodies after their post-mortem before they were cremated. The Deputy Commissioner telephoned the Deputy Superintendent of Police in the presence of Justice Bains and I.S. Jaijee and conveyed to him their request. He agreed and asked them to come to the Civil Hospital, Ropar. He, however, removed the bodies from the hospital before they had time to reach it and the police cremated them under the pretext of their being 'unclaimed'. On 25 July Tarlochan Singh moved an application in the court of D.K. Monga, Sub-divisional Judicial Magistrate, Kharar, pleading for the direction to Ropar police to produce in his court the photographs, clothes and other articles recovered from the bodies of the two men who the police claimed were killed in the 'encounter' of the 23rd night. The magistrate merely issued notice to the police to file their answer.

The affidavit filed by the Station House Officer of the police station Mohali on 27 July 1989 stated that on 22 July 1989 assistant sub-inspector Amarjit Singh of the CIA staff Patiala along with other policemen raided house No. 1752, Phase 5 Mohali and that during the raid when the "terrorists" Palvinder Singh Pola and Kulwinder Singh opened fire on them, the police returned fire, killing Palvinder Singh. Kulwinder Singh, the reply said, had managed to escape.

Tarlochan Singh Sidhu was now convinced that his son had been eliminated, but fortunately, was proved wrong; some days later he met Satnam Singh of Mohali who had also been arrested by the Patiala police on 22 July 1989 from Phase 5 Mohali, and was subsequently released. Satnam Singh told him that he had seen Kulwinder at the residence of Surjit Singh Grewal, inspector CIA staff, Patiala, on the night of 24 July. Still another person, Sher Singh, arrested by the Patiala police on 21 July from Madan Pur Chowk, Mohali, and subsequently released, also confirmed that Kulwinder Singh was in S.S. Grewal's custody and that he had seen him with his own eyes being interrogated by the said inspector.

On 22 August 1989 Tarlochan Singh submitted petitions to the President of India, the Home Minister, the governor of Punjab and the Home Secretary of Punjab, imploring them to institute a judicial inquiry into the alleged escape of Kulwinder Singh, but he received no response from them. On 22 September 1989 Tarlochan Singh filed a criminal writ petition under Article 226 of the Indian constitution for the issuance of writ in the nature of habeas corpus for the production of his son. The petition further sought the appointment of an impartial investigation in case the respondents denied his custody.

The petition was admitted; the respondents stuck to their theory of Kulwinder's escape and the High Court has not yet ordered an inquiry. The petition is pending, the next date of hearing being 27 February 1990.

Case No. VII

Baldev Singh, 30 years, son of Harbhajan Singh, was a mason residing in village Shekchak, Tehsil Taran Taran, district Amritsar. On 25 February 1988 around 3 p.m., when he was going by cycle-rickshaw together with a friend, Harjab Singh alias Ladi from Chakiyari village in Jalandhar, CRPF men in jeeps overtook them near a mango grove (belonging to a retired army officer near Fatehabad) and took them into custody.

Baldev Singh together with his friend were on their way to Bhoonya, the native village of his wife Gurmit Kaur, to bring her back to his house in Shekchak. A friend of their families, Bachittar Singh of Bhoonya village was on his way to Fatehabad on his scooter to bring back his children from school when, upon seeing, Baldev Singh in a rickshaw, he stopped to chat. While they were still talking, a CRPF jeep coming from the same direction, stopped by the road 20 meters ahead of them. Insensitive to the danger looming over them, Baldev and Harjab Singh climbed into the rickshaw and Bachittar Singh was about to leave on his scooter. He, however, had already noticed several armed men alighting from the jeep, and as he turned around he saw both Baldev and Harjab Singh running into the mango grove with the armed men in hot pursuit. Feeling both concerned and scared, he drove to the other side of the grove where he saw them still being chased by the CRPF men. Not wishing to get involved, Bachittar Singh went on to his children's school and on his way back noticed the CRPF jeeps returning. On the way he stopped to consult the rickshaw puller who told him that the CRPF men had arrested both of his passengers. Bachittar Singh also spoke to a labourer in the mango grove who not only confirmed the story but also said they had been severely beaten after their capture.

Bachittar Singh then went to Gurmit Kaur's parental house and informed her about her husband's abduction. The following morning Gurmit and her mother went to Shekchak and informed Baldev Singh's parents who immediately contacted some village elders - among them Kartar Singh, Jaswinder Singh and Surinder Singh - and went to the camp of the 29th CRPF battalion at Fatehabad. The CRPF officers present in the camp refused to tell them anything about the case. Baldev Singh's father Harbhajan Singh immediately sent telegraphic petitions to the Director General of Punjab Police stating the facts about the abduction and requesting him to have them produced before a court.

Baldev Singh's younger brother, Sukhjinder Singh, also a mason, went to the police station at Fatehabad and spoke to an acquaintance of his, Tarlochan Singh Walia, Assistant sub-inspector of police. Tarlochan Singh told him that Baldev Singh was alive and safe in the CRPF's custody and promised that, after returning from a marriage ceremony in Kapurthala, he would try to get him released. When Sukhjinder Singh approached him again after four days, the sub-inspector pleaded his inability to help. When asked as to whether this was because his brother had been killed, the latter refused to divulge any information and suggested that Sukhjinder Singh might inquire from Bairowal police station.

An officer at the station told him that an unidentified person had been killed in an armed 'encounter' with the police on the canal bridge near Bairowal in the night of 28 February. Bachittar Singh of Bhoonya village then met Gurinder Singh, an assistant sub-inspector at Khadoor Sahib police station and requested him to verify whether Baldev Singh had been killed or not. Gurinder Singh replied that he had been killed under interrogation. Bachittar Singh, together with Kartar Singh of Shekchak village then proceeded to the court of Dalip Singh, a magistrate in Tarn Taran, to whom the Bairowal police had submitted a report on the encounter that had supposedly occurred. The report claimed that an unidentified person had been killed in the encounter. The photograph attached was not, however, that of Baldev Singh.

His parents were nevertheless convinced that their son had been eliminated and commemorated his death through a religious service held on 9 March 1988. As the event was announced in the daily Ajit of 8 March 1988, indications that Baldev Singh might still be alive started reaching his parents after the ceremony. Jagir Singh, Baldev Singh's eldest brother who bore close resemblance to him and was also a mason, met a worker from village Kotli, Tehsil Khadur Sahib, who claimed that he had spent 15 days together with Baldev in Bairowal police station under interrogation. Twenty days after Baldev Singh's abduction a large team of CRPF officers led by Gorakhnath Tiwadiya came to his residence in Shekchak and found Harbans Kaur, Baldev's mother, and Balwinder Singh, his youngest brother, at home. They searched the house and wanted to take Balwinder along, but released him when, on hearing his mother raise pandemonium, a large number of angry villagers gathered outside the house.

Inspector Tiwadiya admitted to Harbans Kaur before leaving that Baldev Singh was in his custody. Baldev's wife, Gurmit Kaur, together with their three children (Sukhjinder Singh, aged 3; Simarjit Kaur, aged 6; Paramjit Kaur, aged 7), his ageing parents and his brothers are living in the hope that Baldev Singh is still alive and will return home one day; however, two years of unrequited hope has proved a mortifying suspense which has taken its toll.

Case No. VIII

Baljinder Singh, alias Raju, was known to have been an active member of the AISSF. Originally from Ganganagar in Rajasthan, he has for many years been living in Amritsar, though his parents, with whom he has maintained scant contact, still live in Ganganagar.

On 8 June 1989, Baljinder Singh together with a friend, Gurjit Singh alias Grover, son of Pritam Singh, resident of Kot Mit Singh, Tarn Taran Road, Amritsar, went to Jalandhar to sell his car, plate No. DBD-3711. He went to a dealer in the city centre from whom he had purchased it some time ago, as the dealer had indicated he had found a customer for him, a college teacher willing to pay Rs. 70,000. Baljinder Singh collected an advance payment of Rs. 5,000 and the dealer asked him to return the next day to sign the sale deed and collect the money.

When he and his friend returned to the dealer's shop on 9 June 1989 at 2 p.m., there was another person there they had not seen previously, who they assumed was a business partner. The dealer, Mr. Sharma, asked them to come along with him in his car to collect the payment and sign the papers. The other man also accompanied them. The dealer alighted outside the college near Football Chowk, telling them that while he was busy with the buyer, they should go to collect the prescribed sale forms and stamps from the local court. The other man in the car drove them to a building adjacent to the court. Before they became aware that they were in fact inside the compound of the office of the CIA of Punjab, a dozen policemen armed with light machine guns and rifles surrounded them and forced them inside the building. Once inside, Baljinder Singh and Gurjit Singh were handcuffed and separated. A person disguised in a black burka (tent - like robe covering the entire body) identified them.

Gurjit Singh had earlier taken note of a girl sitting in a room he had passed through. She was Lakhwinder Kaur, a student from Amritsar acquainted with Baljinder, who identified him, perhaps under duress. She was required to report regularly to a police station in Jalandhar because of her suspected connection with the AISSF. The following day Lakhwinder Kaur reached Gadli Village, post office Bhagwan, Tehsil Tarn Taran, to visit Gurdayal Singh, a relative of Baljinder's. There she also met Balwinder Kaur, his cousin and announced that Baljinder was in the custody of the Jalandhar police; she advised them to immediately move a petition for writ of habeas corpus for his production in the High Court of Punjab and Haryana. The petition was hurriedly filed but was dismissed by the court.

The Jalandhar police took Baljinder Singh in the night of his arrest to Gurjit Singh's house in Amritsar where the latter's mother, Daljit Kaur and other members of the family identified him as a person acquainted with Gurjit who had been staying with them for some time. The police departed with Baljinder after searching the house and he was taken back to Jalandhar interrogation. During the following 15 days both Baljinder and Gurjit Singh were interrogated under torture jointly by the officials of the CRPF and the CIA, Jalandhar. They were brought together to confront each other five times during interrogation.

On 25 June 1989 Gurjit Singh was produced before the Chief Judicial Magistrate of Jalandhar in a case that was registered against him under the Arms Act and the TDPA. He was remanded to judicial custody by the magistrate. Baljinder was not produced before any magistrate and remained in illegal custody.

On 16 January 1990 the case against Gurjit Singh was withdrawn by the prosecution and he was released by the court of S.S. Tiwana, additional judge of the designated court which had been assigned his case. Baljinder Singh must still be in illegal custody unless he has been eliminated in a 'faked encounter'.