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Memorandum submitted to UN Secretary General for release of Professor DPS Bhullar

July 28, 2011 | By Tejashdeep Singh

Text of the memorandum submitted by Sikhs for Justice and other Sikh bodies of US to Secretary General of United Nations is reproduced here:

MEMORANDUM

To: His Excellency Bon Ki-moon
Secretary General

United Nations
From: Sikh Cultural Society, Richmond Hill, NY; Sikhs for Justice (SFJ); Sikh Gurudawaras

(Temples) across North America and other organizations.

Sub: Intervene and save Professor Devenderpal Singh Bhullar from “judicial murder” in India.

Re: Enforce UN Resolution 62/149 “Moratorium on the use of Death Penalty”

Date: July 25, 2011

United Nations is called upon to intervene and save Professor Devenderpal Singh Bhullar from “judicial murder in India” pursuant UN General Assembly Resolution 62/149 of 2008. Resolution 62/149 adopted in the 76th plenary meeting of Sixty Second Session of the General Assembly calls upon all states that maintain the death penalty to completely abolish it reminding that the use of the death penalty undermines human dignity and any miscarriage or failure of justice in the implementation of the death penalty is irreversible and irreparable. Resolution 62/149 was reaffirmed by resolution 63/168 in Sixty Third Session of the UN General Assembly.

In January 1995, Devenderpal Singh Bhullar, a former instructor of Guru Nanak Engineering Polytechnic College Ludhiana, Punjab, India was deported by German authorities and was taken into custody by Indian Police. During the custody, Professor Bhullar was tortured and was forced to sign on “blank sheets of papers” which were later used to engineer a “confessional statement”. During the trial, Professor Bhullar denied having signed the “confessional statement” and testified how he was forced to sign on the blank papers. Despite Bhullar’s denial, retraction and highly improbable and questionable authenticity of the “confessional statement”, he was sentenced to death solely on the basis of this “statement” and without any independent corroborating evidence or witness. Professor Bhullar was convicted under the notorious TADA (Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act of India, a law that has been condemned as disturbing and completely unacceptable by Honorable Nigel Rodely, UN Rapporteur on Torture (1993-2001). Professor Bhullar’s death sentence was upheld by a split decision of the Supreme Court of India.

Bhullar’s conviction endorses extracting of confessions through torture and his continuous detention for the past sixteen (16) years violates the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and shocks human dignity.

Professor Bhullar’s case warrants immediate intervention by the UN because India is determined to execute him.. Therefore, UN is urged to act pursuant to Resolution 62/149 by asking the Government of India to:

Provide the United Nations with information relating to the circumstances of Professor Bhullar’s detention, trial and conviction.
Commute the death sentence of Professor Bhullar as per UN Resolution 62/149.
Sign and rectify UN Convention Against Torture.

Gurpatwant S Pannun
Legal Advisor,
Sikhs For Justice

Coordinating Committee
Sikh Cultural Society of New York
Richmond Hill, NY 11419

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Related Topics: Prof. Devender Pal Singh Bhullar, Sikh Diaspora, Sikh Organizations, Sikhs for Justice

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