The Case Of Avtar Singh Sidhu

Avtar Singh Sidhu, a leader of the Youth Akali Dal from Muktsar in Faridkot district, had been helpful to me in gathering information on some cases involving fake encounters already cited in this report. On 30 September 1988 police raided his house and a shop of pesticides owned by him in Muktsar.

Sidhu was not present at either place. Many of his relatives including his younger brother Jagtar Singh and some of his friends were taken into custody, and a truck owned by Sidhu No. PJO 5375, as also his motorcycle were confiscated. These harassments were meted out to force him to present himself to the police. Jagtar Singh, arrested from Sidhu's house, was later implicated in a case under the Arms Act and Terroristic and Destructive Crimes Prevention and Punishment act.

On 14 October 1988 Sidhu surrendered himself to the custody of K.P.S. Gill, the Director General of the Punjab Police, at his residence in Chandigarh, in the presence of Mr. Amrinder Singh of the Patiala princely family, a leader of the Akali Dal. Mr. Gill had assured Amrinder Singh that Sidhu would not be tortured or implicated in false cases. When after three weeks Sidhu had still not been produced before a magistrate and his whereabouts remained unknown with private reports suggesting that he might be under torture, our aforementioned Committee for Information and Initiative on Punjab decided to follow up the case.

On 6 November, three members of the Committee, including myself, went to Faridkot and requested the Senior Superintendent of Police to grant an interview with the detainee. The SSP admitted to us Sidhu's detention and also his non-production before a magistrate, but expressed inability to grant our request since the DGP himself was handling the case. The other two along with me, Nitya Ramakrishnan and Ashok Agrawal, then approached the DGP at Chandigarh as lawyers authorized by Sidhu's family to interview the detainee. Gill took their application and promising to respond to the request for interview with the detainee in due course, chided them for "disturbing him at odd hours on unimportant issues." We then attempted over the next two days to get an interview with the Governor of Punjab.

We did not succeed, but at least his secretary, Mr. Ratra, noted down the particulars of A.S. Sidhu's case and assured us that he would place them before the Governor. We then got in touch with several human rights organizations in India and abroad, also some parliamentarians and important lawyers, to acquaint them with the particulars of the case. Over the next three weeks many of them addressed appeals to the Governor to either release Sidhu or to charge him formally under the law. Sidhu was released on 30 November 1988. I, together with Tapan Bose, a documentary film maker and also a member of our Committee, met Sidhu in Chandigarh on 30 January 1989. Sidhu talked to us about his ordeals. I produce the gist of my interview with him:

Q: Where were you on 30 September 1988, when the police raided your shop and the residence in Muktsar?

A: I was in Muktsar near my pesticides' shop. Ten minutes before the raid some friends had turned up to see me in the shop. I took them over to a sweet shop across the road. From there I saw the police arrive and start the raid. I got up to find out what was going on. But the owner of the sweet shop, Mr. Ratan, a Hindu, requested me to stay where I was and himself went to my shop to see what they wanted. He came back, to tell me that the police was there to arrest me. I could see the workers of my shop being taken away in handcuffs. Major Singh Bhullar, Deputy Superintendent, Detective, locked the shop and put the key in his pocket. I learnt later that he had also taken away Rs. 2000 from the shop. I telephoned the Sadar police station in Muktsar to find out what they had against me. Inspector Sethi, whom I knew, was not there. But I spoke to a head constable. The fellow had no information. I then went to a friend Harpreet Singh and requested him to go to my house and find out what was happening there. He went and came back to tell me that my mother, Amarjit Kaur, my younger brother, Jagtar Singh, and one other man, Manjinder Singh alias Gupta, a guest, had been taken away to the police station after the raid.

Q: What did you do then?

A: I took a taxi and went to Patiala, to meet Amrinder Singh, to inform him about the happenings and to request him to intervene. At Patiala I learnt that he was in Delhi. I went there. I met him and told him what had happened. Amrinder rang up the DGP, Punjab, and asked him why the police was harassing my family. The DGP did not know and promised to find out. In the evening Amrinder called him again. The DGP told him that the police wanted to interrogate me and that my relatives and friends had been taken into custody because I was absconding. Amrinder Singh let him know that I was with him and also that I was the President of the Youth Akali Dal and had nothing to do with the Sikh militancy. The DGP answered that there were questions which his officers at Faridkot wanted to put to me. He requested Amrinder Singh to bring me over to his house assuring him that I would neither be tortured nor implicated in false cases. Both of them remained in touch over the phone for the next five or six days. The DGP kept on repeating to Amrinder Singh that he should persuade me to surrender, most earnestly pleading that I would be treated within the terms of law. But I learnt on 8 January 1988 that my brother had already been implicated in a case under the Arms Act and the TDPA. The SSP Sharma, in an interview he gave to the press, claimed that Jagtar was arrested while he was sitting on a motorcycle along with two others, Nipender Singh of Jindewala village near Muktsar, and Sukhvinder Singh of Gadadu village, armed with AK 47 assault rifles, sten guns and explosives, at Harinau village near Kotkapura, 50 kilometers from Muktsar. But in reality a lot of people in Muktsar had seen Jagtar picked up from my family house. The motorcycle belonged to me and had also been confiscated from Muktsar. The police claimed that it was a stolen motor cycle. They just cooked up this absurd case. How could I believe that the DGP would keep his word about not torturing and implicating me in false cases?

Q: Why then did you let Amrinder lead you to Gill?

A: What else could I do? Members of my family and many of my friends, altogether thirty two people, had been picked up by the police as hostages. If I remained at large they would have been implicated in false cases, tortured or God knows what. The DGP was promising Amrinder Singh that I would not be tortured and that all my relatives and friends in custody would be released if I surrendered. So I had to take the risk. On 14 October I went along with Amrinder Singh to Chandigarh. At about 4 p.m. we went to the DGP's house. He once again repeated his promises. Amrinder Singh then went away. After about two hours, Mr. Sudarshan Chopra, the SP Headquarters Faridkot, turned up and took me into his custody. I was put into a jeep, a white Gypsy whose glasses were tinted black. There were five policemen in uniform inside the jeep. Another escort jeep followed us. As I got into the jeep, the policemen started handcuffing me. I protested. I had committed no crime, nor was I arrested formally. How could they handcuff me then? They did not listen. When the jeep moved Chopra asked me to reveal to him my caches of AK 47 rifles in Chandigarh. I was shocked at the question. I told him that I had no weapons in Chandigarh or anywhere else. He threatened to arrange for my torture right away. But he did not stop and drove on to Faridkot. That night I was locked up in a cell at the CIA interrogation centre in Faridkot. There were seven others in the cell. Manjinder Singh alias Gupta who had been arrested from my house was also there. The cell was cold. We were not given blankets. There was no toilet. We urinated and defecated in a corner which spread out all over. At about 7 a.m. the next day, Mr. Deshraj, SP Operations, came to my cell accompanied by fifteen or twenty other policemen.

Q: Do you remember their names?

A: Let me see. Karnail Singh Brar, Inspector CIA staff, Faridkot; Babu Joginder Lal, Sub-Inspector; Nek Singh, Surinder Singh, Natha Singh, Leth Singh, all head constables and some other headconstables and constables. Deshraj did not put questions to me. He ordered his men to take me out of the cell to a large open verandah. Deshraj and Brar sat down on chairs and others started removing my clothes. They had not yet asked me a single question. I protested strongly but to no avail. They tore up my shirt and stripped me naked. Toes of my feet were tied together with my own shoe strings. My hands were bound behind my back with my own turban. Three constables got behind me and started pulling my hair. Someone brought an iron pestle about six feet long and five inches thick and placed it on my thighs. Three police men got on to the top of the rod and two others, holding the pestle from both the ends started rolling it up and down between my hips and knees. This they did for ten to fifteen minutes. You can imagine how it was. It could not have pained more if my legs had been amputated. Deshraj now put his first questions, rather his assertions; Militants came to my house; I hid weapons for them; I knew their hideouts. What could I say? No militant came to my house. I did not know where they hid themselves and their weapons. "Why was I in politics", Deshraj changed his line. "Why did I give away information about false encounters to journalists", he asked me. He said I will have to give up politics. My torture was resumed and intermittently broken for interrogation and resumed again. I was caught in this cycle for the next four days. I fainted many times and considered myself as good as dead. During the nights they did not let me sleep. The moment my eyes shut they hit me with the butts of their rifles or kicked me in the groin. They would not even let me sit down.

Q: Did you get to know that some of us had come to Faridkot to make inquiries about your detention?

A: Yes. You were in Faridkot on 6th of November. I came to know about it later. I was then in the custody of the CIA staff, Faridkot. At 5 or 6 p.m. that evening I was taken out of the lock up, wrapped up in a blanket and forced to get on to the pillion of a motorcycle. I was driven away to the Sadar police station, Faridkot. Later when it got dark, I was put in a van and taken to a different place near Brijendra College. From there I was again removed to the police lines and then around 10 p.m. to Kotkapura police station where I remained for the next six days.

Q: Were you taken to other districts also for interrogation?

A: Yes, from 15th or 16th of November, the police started taking me out to other places in a private Maruti van, in fact, a taxi, hired from the stand near the Sadar police station in Kotkapura.

Q: What was the number of the taxi?

A: Police had removed the number plate but the driver of the taxi was called Fauji. I don't know his full name but can recognize him by his face.

Q: Who were the policemen with you?

A: Babu Joginder Lal, a sub inspector, was leading a team of one head constable and four constables.

Q: Where did they take you to and what for?

A: They took me to four places: Samana, Pattada and Khanori Mandi in Patiala district and to Moga, a subdivisional town in Faridkot district. They would park the van with tinted glasses outside a railway station, a bus stand, a market place and a Gurdwara. The sub-inspector would then prod me to identify the terrorists among the people moving about. He promised big rewards if I got them identified. He threatened to get me killed if I failed to produce terrorists.

Q: What did you do?

A: Nothing. There was nothing I could do.

Q: Were you not afraid of the consequences?

A: I was. I feared torture the most. I could not have taken more but I could not point at some innocent, unknown men as terrorists to save myself.

Q: Did you sign statements in the course of your interrogation?

A: Yes. I was forced to. They took my signatures on several sheets of paper without telling me what statements they contained. They would not read them out to me. They simply forced me to sign. The SSP Faridkot forced me also to sign some blank sheets of paper just before my release.

Q: What happened to your relatives and friends who were taken into custody before you had surrendered?

A: Most of them who paid bribes were released. Harpreet Singh, my friend in Muktsar, whose entire family had been taken away to the police station, paid Rs.10,000. My maternal uncle Balwant Singh paid Rs. 6,000. Gurdeep Singh Sunari of Muktsar gave Rs. 5,000. Mr. Sodhi, a businessman of Muktsar and a friend of my father, paid Rs.10,000. Many others bribed and got away.

Q: Where is Manjinder Singh alias Gupta?

A: They killed him early in the morning of 7 November, some hours after your team left Faridkot.

Q: How do you know?

A: He was in the CIA interrogation centre along with me until November 6. There were also others. The boys from Nathuwale village who were all then in the CIA interrogation centre saw him taken out around 3 a.m., the 7th morning. The newspapers next day reported that the dead body of an unidentified RterroristS has been recovered from a nearby village. The report was based on a police handout. The death was attributed to fights among rival militant groups. Manjinder Singh had told me, before he himself was killed, how he had himself seen the police shoot dead a boy in Samana in Patiala district. It was like this: Manjinder was taken in a tinted van, like me, to identify militants. The van was parked near the bus stand in Samana. He saw how a boy sitting in a cycle rickshaw was shot at by the SP Operations Deshraj from the van in which he himself sat. The other policeman then dragged his body into the van which sped away. This was done in a crowded public place in broad daylight. Hundreds of people witnessed the incident. I have found out that this boy was Surinder Singh Chadda of Arjunpur village in Gurdaspur district.

Q: Do you know the date of this murder?

A: I can't say exactly. It must have been about a week before they killed Manjinder.

Q: How were you released?

A: In the evening of 30th November I was driven in a van to Muktsar and let off outside my house. Earlier, the SSP, Faridkot had warned me that if I talked about my experience to anyone I would be killed. He took my signature on many blank sheets of paper. He asked me to gather information on militants and to report to him.

Q: What was the state of your health then? Had you received medical attention during your custody after your torture?

A: No. I was not given medical aid after my torture. I could barely stand. I went to Dr. Surinder Bhandari for treatment. My legs still pain a lot and I feel very weak.

Q: Has the police followed you after your release?

A: Yes. I was called to the Muktsar police station three or four times since my release. The SSP himself sent for me on 16 January. I was driven to his office at Faridkot. He chided me for not yet having come out with a report on militants. He warned me that unless I produced results soon, he would order my rearrest and elimination. He promised to help me to get business contracts or even pay in cash if I cooperated.

Q: Where is your brother Jagtar Singh?

A: He is still in jail. We have applied for his bail but the court rejected the application.

Q: Which court?

A: The Special Court presided over by S.P. Anand in the district of Faridkot. The judge told us that until the SSP, Faridkot, cleared the bail application, it could not be granted.

Q: Do you now fear for your life?

A: The police has threatened to kill me if I talked about my case and did not become an informer. How can I keep quiet? How can I become a police informer? They may come one day and take me away, or just shoot me in broad day light as they have shot the boy in Samana. I am ordered to inform the police when and where I go before leaving Muktsar.

Q: Did you tell them that you were coming to meet us here in Chandigarh?

A: I just told them that I was going to Chandigarh.

Q: Have they given you these instructions in writing?

A: (Sidhu laughs). There is never anything in writing.