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“Trace our missing kin first”
Amnesty move a betrayal, say affected families
Jupinderjit Singh
Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, August 21
“Tell them to return my lost ‘innocent’ brother or at least inform us about the real culprits responsible for his disappearance and I will be the first one to pardon them.” These words by Jasbir Singh of Wadla village near Khanna, whose younger brother Chamkaur Singh was allegedly picked up by the police in 1991 and is missing since then, aptly express the mood of a number of such families in the district regarding the ongoing move of providing general amnesty to cops facing cases of human rights violations and others during the days of militancy.

While the debate on whether to pardon or not a large number of convicted or accused police officials has not reached its decisive end and an organisation of the Punjab police has renewed its threats to return police medals, a number of affected families whose relatives were allegedly picked up by the police have expressed resentment over the move and lamented that no one was taking their view-point on the issue.

The Tribune met three such families living in Wadla village on the Khanna-Chandigarh road, Dedke and Kaunke village near Jagraon today. Aghast at the proposed move the family members demanded that the law of the land should be allowed to prevail. They said not only had they suffered the pain of losing a dear one but had also been burdened by long legal battles in which they were involved to get the guilty punished.

Jasbir Singh of Wadla village last saw his brother Chamkaur Singh in April 1991, when he surrendered before the Sudhar police (in Jagraon district). After 10 years of legal battle the family received a shot in the arm when the Punjab and Haryana High Court ordered a CBI probe into the case last month. However, while the CBI sleuths have yet to contact the family, mediators of the police have already started frequenting their house with attractive offers of a compromise. ‘’I find it strange and amusing. On the one side the cops claim they are innocent and on the other they send mediators to our homes’’ said Jasbir Singh.

“The cops may not have faith in our legal system as they have started threatening the government but we have full confidence in the judiciary’’ he said. A visibly upset Jasbir Singh said cops fought the cases all these years thinking they might get scot-free and now when most of the cases had reached the decisive stage they were demanding amnesty.

Hari Singh Kaunke, brother of late Gurdev Singh Kaunke an Akal Takht Jathedar, who was allegedly tortured and murdered in police custody in 1992, was equally agitated at the amnesty move. ‘’ Eh sadde nal dhakka hovega (This would be discrimination with us) ‘’he said adding that for years they had been fighting a legal battle and braving threats of further harm by the accused. ‘’It will be rubbing salt into our wounds if the government gives them amnesty’’ he said.

The case of the former Akal Takht Jathedar was incidentally in the news recently when the Punjab and Haryana High Court directed the state government through its Advocate-General to make public the report of his alleged murder in police custody. However, the police version of the sequence of events maintained that the jathedar had escaped from police custody and his whereabouts were not known.

Malkit Kaur of Dedke village near Jagraon is another alleged victim of police brutality. One of her sons Saroop Singh disappeared in 1992 and was allegedly kidnapped and killed by the cops who accused him of being a terrorist. The family has since then been groping in the dark about his whereabouts. Talking to The Tribune at her residence, she said they vehemently opposed any such move. She said if the cops were saying that they were innocent then who had taken away her son. ‘’After all some one must be held responsible for it. If the cops say they acted on the directions of the seniors then they should name the senior officers in the court and we will start a legal fight against those persons’’ she said.

Gurcharan Singh Grewal, President, Sikh Students Federation (Mehta), when contacted said the sentiments of all such families affected by the alleged police-brutality were the same.

Mr D.S. Gill, chairperson, International Human Rights Organisation (IHRO), also condemned the move. In a press statement, he said the IHRO would appreciate if the police officials could name the senior officials on whose directions they have been indulging in such activities.