Special News

Fake Encounters – Victim families & Human Rights bodies to trigger legal fight for justice

July 16, 2013 | By Sikh Siyasat Bureau

Jalandhar, Punjab (July 16, 2013): Even as the controversy over the Ishrat Jahan case rages on, the demand for families of those eliminated in fake encounters in Punjab during militancy days has resurfaced, especially after a cop recently made the ‘revelation’ that he had killed 83 persons in cold blood.

Punjab Police sub-inspector Surjit Singh had made this claim in a petition submitted to the Punjab and Haryana high court while seeking security. A group of human rights activists on Sunday (July 14, 2013) announced in Jalandhar that a petition would be filed in the Supreme Court to seek protection for Surjit Singh and also to demand CBI probe into fake encounters.

As the families of those eliminated have also started coming forward, the activists have announced that the victim families would file individual petitions in the high court. Rights bodies including Punjab Human Rights Organization, Khalra Mission Committee and prominent activists held a meeting here in which the affected families also participated.

The common refrain of the affected families and activists was that if fake encounters could be investigated in Gujarat, then why should there be silence in Punjab on the issue and why the justice should not be done, that too when evidence is coming out from within the state police.

“Skeletons will tumble out if Surjit Singh’s disclosures are investigated. A policeman is claiming that he killed 83 persons in cold blood after taking them into custody and the state is refusing to investigate. It’s a serious issue. A petition will be filed in the SC to seek protection for Singh and a thorough probe into these fake encounters,” said PHRO vice-president Kirpal Singh Randhawa.

Meanwhile, Punjab and Haryana high court advocate Amar Singh Chahal said that petitions would be filed by families of those eliminated by Surjit Singh in fake encounters. “A judicial enquiry should be ordered to investigate fake encounters in Punjab. All political parties are silent on the issue even as Congress has been going all out to corner Narendra Modi and BJP on the issue of fake encounters in Gujarat,” Chahal said.

Meanwhile, Kashmir Kaur of Sakhira village in Taran Taran, who attended the meeting, said that her 18-year-old son Pargat Singh was picked up by police from their house on December 12, 1991 and then eliminated. “Even his body was not given to us, nor were we informed about his death. Till this day police have not informed us anything,” she said.

The families which gathered here narrated the circumstances in which their kin were picked up and then they came to know through newspapers or through other sources that they were shown killed in fake encounters. Most of them said that all these encounters in which their kin were shown killed the young men were picked up from their homes or work places and were kept in police custody before being killed.

Note: Above news article was originally published by Times of India (TOI) under title: “Human Rights groups to approach SC on fake encounters”. It is reproduced here for the information of readers/visitors of Sikh Siyasat News (SSN). Readers/Visitors are advised to check the original news at it’s source page: http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2013-07-15/chandigarh/40589716_1_fake-encounters-punjab-human-rights-organization-phro

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Related Topics: Advocate Amar Singh Chahal, Fake Encounters, Journalist Dalbir Singh Ganna, Khalra Mission Organization, Punjab Human Rights Organization, Surjit Singh SI

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