Bapu Chaman Lal lived for over hundred years but died on July 1, 2016 awaiting justice for his son killed in fake encounter by the police in 1994 and his wait for justice proved longer than his life.
Bapu Chaman Lal had lost more than 30 members of his family during 1947 partition of Punjab when his family had migrated from west parts of Punjab to Eastern parts of Punjab.
He was arrested in 1994 by the Punjab police along with his son on false charges of theft. They were subjected to torture. Later, the police released Chaman Lal but his son Gulshan Kumar was not released.
Human rights lawyer Advocate Rajwinder Singh told Sikh Siyasat News (SSN) that the police had demanded lacks of rupees to release Gulshan Kumar, but the poor father could not pay the amount to save his son. The Punjab police subjected Bapu Chaman Lal’s son to enforced disappearance and was eliminated.
“Chaman Lal used to say that he want to depose before the courts before leaving this world so that justice could be secured for his innocent son. He was very hard person and was attending every meeting in relation to victims of enforced disappearances in Punjab”, Advo. Bains recalls.
The case related to enforced disappearance of Chaman Lal’s son was investigated by the CBI and a chargesheet was also presented in the trial court against the accused police personnel. But the trial in this case could not began for over a decade after the filing of the chargesheet as the Supreme Court of India had installed a stay order in this case.
Chaman Lal had made several requests to Indian courts to record his testimony as he was prime witness in case related to his son’s disappearance, but his pleas were not allowed by Indian courts, including the Supreme Court of India in wake of the stay order.
The stay order remained operative for more than a decade and was lifted in April 2016. The next date of hearing in resumed trial of Chaman Lal’s son’s enforced disappearance case was on Saturday (2 July, 2016).
This presentation present Bapu Chaman Lal (Tarn Taran)’s untiring struggle for Human Rights and Justice.