Black Cat turned cop - Gurmeet Singh Pinky
Chandigarh (February 4, 2012): Four Days back, on 31 January, 2012 Punjab and Haryana High Court dismissed an appeal filed by controversial Punjab Police inspector, Gurmeet Singh alias Pinky seeking acquittal in a murder case.
Pinky once a Police black cat, had been awarded life imprisonment by a trial court in Haryana’s Yamuna Nagar that held him guilty of murdering Avtar Singh, a 20-year-old and the only son of a Ludhiana resident.
A division bench headed by Justice S. S. Saron on 31 January, 2012 dismissed an appeal filed by Gurmeet Singh Pinky wherein he had challenged the life imprisonment awarded to him by the Court of District and Sessions Judge, Jagadhri at Yamuna Nagar in Haryana on October 18, 2006. Pinky murdered the Ludhiana youth on January 7, 2001 following a minor altercation.
As the accused Gurmeet Singh Pinky was allowed to remain on influential position in police department during trial, the trial was first transferred from Punjab to Chandigarh and then to Haryana. A few judges had also recused from the case citing personal reasons.
The other five accused were acquitted by the lower court at Yamuna Nagar. An appeal seeking conviction of those acquitted was also filed by the father of the deceased. This appeal, however, was dismissed by the high court.
Black Cat Phenomena and Mass level violation in Punjab:
It is notable that in order to defame the Sikh militant movement of 1980s and to breakdown its’ popular mass suport base the Indian state introduced the policy of “black cats”. Black cats were criminal people such as goons/gangsters or smugglers employed secretly by the State to act for it’s police or armed forced as “Sikh Militants”.
These black cats pretending to be Sikh freedom fighters committed atrocities on people of Punjab including civilian killings. This way police targetted both participants and supporters of Sikh freedom movement and at the same time defamed the struggle.
After 1990s such police cats were rehabilitated by the Indian State under fictitious names, after being shown as dead. Some of them, such as Pinky, were later formally employed in the Punjab police. Many innocent Sikh civilians were killed by the police showing them as so-called Sikh militants (persons used to work under the names of Sikh militants, but in reality they were police cats.
Punjab’s former Director General of Police Julio Ribeiro, who first introduced black cats in mid-1980 has admitted the fact of existence and black deeds of these cats in his auto-biography “Bullet for Bullet”.
In 2006 then Director General of Punjab Sarabjeet Singh Virk admitted that Indian State and Punjab police has rehabilitated more than 300 such police cats after showing the as dead.
Punjab’s mass murderer, KPS Gill (former DGP of Punjab), who is presented as “Super Cop” by Indian state and media has also admitted the use of black cats.
One of US Diplomatic cables leaked by Wikileaks also confirm the use of black cats and secret army called sena kept and used by Punjab police officer Izhar Alam.
“With regard to former Senior Superintendent Punjab Police (Jalandhar) Mohammad Izhar Alam, we can confirm that he now holds the position of Additional Director General (Administration) Punjab Police, a senior police posting. During the insurgency, he assembled a large, personal paramilitary force of approximately 150 men known as the “Black Cats” or “Alam Sena” (“Alam’s Army”) that included cashiered police officers and rehabilitated Sikh terrorists. The group had reach throughout the Punjab and is alleged to have had carte blanche in carrying out possibly thousands of staged “encounter killings.” (NOTE: Former Director General Punjab Police KPS Gill publicly praised the group, saying the Punjab police could not function without them. End Note.) Herkewaljit Singh told us that Alam was “at the top of the list” in authorizing encounters during the insurgency period”.
– Excerpt from US cable leaked by Wikileaks.
(Full Story by Sikh Siyasat) | (Full Cable @ Wikileaks CableViewer)
Gurmeet Singh Pinky was one of them. He was never charged with the violations he committed during militancy period and was convicted in a murder case committed after that period. He was allowed to remain on post even during the pendency of trial.
Mass violators of Punjab enjoy blind impunity even now days.